March 2025
Women
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Social ties
United Kingdom
Women in prison will be given access to hairdryers, hair straighteners and salons in a drive to reduce levels of self-harm. The equipment will be available for loan on wings.
Europe
Facilities
Overcrowding
Alternatives
United Kingdom
The site, described by critics as a ‘megaprison,’ is equipped with solar panels and heat pump technology and is the first prison of this kind in the UK. It is one of Britain’s biggest prisons, and is part of a plan to tackle the serious overcrowding.
North America
Social ties
Alternatives
Religion
United States
Eid Letters to Incarcerated Muslims, an Ohio grassroots project that for the past five years has facilitated an annual Eid Al-Fitr letter-writing campaign for incarcerated Muslims in the state, hosted a webinar about its efforts.
Crises
Women
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Death penalty
Violence
Iran
Iran executed at least 169 people in January and February alone, according to Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
Unites States: judge says heat in Texas prisons unconstitutional as states face mounting lawsuits
News
Crises
North America
Justice
Material conditions
United States
A federal judge’s rebuke of Texas housing incarcerated people in lockups without air conditioning stopped short of ordering a fix before summer in what has become of the country’s biggest lawsuits over keeping incarcerated people safe during dangerous extreme heat.
Haiti: the root cause of prison escapes
Interview
Crises
Central America and the Caribbean
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Haiti
Thousands of incarcerated people have escaped from Haitian prisons over recent months, but what sparked this trend? Roberson Édouard from the Centre for Research and Exchange on Security and Justice gives us the answer.
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Italy
There have been 24 suicides in Italy’s prisons so far this year after three imprisoned people took their own lives in jails in Avellino, Genoa and Trieste, penitentiary police union SPP said. The union said that, at this rate, last year’s record of 91 prison suicides will be broken in 2025.
Europe
Access to legal rights
Drugs
United Kingdom
A former imprisoned person who died of drug poisining a day after being released should have been given a drug overdose kit, an investigation has found.
Central America and the Caribbean
Foreign prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Torture
Social ties
El Salvador
Hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent days could face long or indefinite detention in a prison system rife with human rights abuses, according to attorneys and experts on the region.
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Death penalty
United Arab Emirates
Twenty-five Indian nationals have been awarded the death sentence in the United Arab Emirates, the Union government told Parliament. However, the judgements were yet to be implemented. In all, 49 Indians have been sentenced to death in eight different countries, the government said.
Middle East
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Death penalty
Saudi Arabia
According to an AFP tally, more than 30 dissidents, many jailed for social media posts, have been released since December, in an apparent rollback of “bad laws” singled out by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.
North America
Minors
Justice
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Violence
United States
Jones is among thousands of people seeking accountability under a new state law that eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims. It was passed in 2023 with the Catholic Church abuse scandal in mind.
Europe
Suicide
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
United Kingdom
Overcrowding is a trigger for poor performances in prisons, says a research document produced by the Institute for Government. It calls for increased education and training for imprisoned people, and the introduction of a minimum standard of provision.
Women
Europe
Material conditions
Social ties
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
The Lilias Centre, in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, is part of a multimillion-pound experiment to tackle reoffending through rehabilitation. They give incarcerated women greater freedoms than traditional prisons and prepare them for life in the community after their sentence.
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Protest
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Indonesia
President Prabowo Subianto’s pledge to construct a remote island prison for corrupt officials has been met with scepticism from experts, who argued that deeper structural reforms of the prison system were needed to address chronic overcrowding and underfunding.
Crises
South America
Foreign prisoners
Torture
Violence
Venezuela
Foro Penal, a Caracas-based legal assistance group suggests that nearly 1,000 people remain behind bars for political reasons in the South American country. That number includes foreign or dual nationals from about 13 different countries.