April 2025
Crises
North America
Justice
Health
Material conditions
United States
United States District Judge Robert Pitman called the lack of air conditioning in incarcerated people facilities “plainly unconstitutional,” but he stopped short of requiring action.
Asia
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Health
Violence
Religion
Azerbaijan
Multiple imprisoned people have gone on hunger strike over the last two weeks. The first person to do so, prominent opposition politician Tofig Yagublu, a member of the opposition Musavat Party, announced his ‘death hunger strike’ in March after being sentenced to nine years in prison.
Europe
Material conditions
Social ties
United Kingdom
HM Inspectorate of Prisons has identified the issue as one of those which frustrate incarcerated people’s efforts to resolve everyday issues such as requests for extra toilet rolls for a cell, making an appointment to speak to staff in another department and applying for courses or prison jobs.
Crises
Asia
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Myanmar (Burma)
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), more than 2,000 political prisoners have died in Myanmar’s prisons since the country was plunged into conflict by a military coup more than four years ago.
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Minors
Middle East
Justice
Health
Overcrowding
Torture
Israel
Detained Palestinian have come forward with harrowing accounts of abuse by Israeli military and prison staff in a new BBC investigation featuring testimonies from former imprisoned people recently released in Gaza.
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Minors
Middle East
Health
Violence
Israel
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition, and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon.
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Women
Minors
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Lebanon
Based on 2024 statistics from the Directorate of Prisons in the Ministry of Justice, there are approximately 8,500 imprisoned people in various prisons across Lebanon, with 83% of them being detained without trial.
Central America and the Caribbean
Justice
Torture
El Salvador
A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to return home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to a supermax prison in El Salvador.
Pre-trial detention
Oceania
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Overcrowding
Activities
Social ties
Australia
Incarcerated people at a men’s remand prison have limited access to fresh air, excessive lockdowns and unhygienic cells infested with pests, a scathing report from a jails’ watchdog says.
North America
Justice
Health
Material conditions
United States
Five women imprisoned at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility near Grants have filed a civil rights lawsuit over what they say is a “longstanding and ongoing” stomach infection circulating among the prison population.
Asia
Health
Mental health
Suicide
Armenia
Eight people have died in penitentiaries in the first quarter of 2025, with half of the cases resulting from suicide. In comparison, 2024 saw 12 deaths in prisons, all officially classified as natural causes, with ten occurring in civilian hospitals, according to the Penitentiary Service.
India: congested jails in Kerala's Ernakulam raise concerns as hunt for new prison site drags on
News
Asia
Drugs
Facilities
Overcrowding
India
The wait for a new sub-jail in the district continues even as overcrowding in existing prisons becomes a growing concern. Though the district administration sanctioned land in Puthuvype for the project last year, the plot was later deemed unfit for construction.
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Rehabilitation
Work
New Zealand
The retiring chair of the Parole Board Sir Ron Young says it’s an injustice that some people don’t get an early release from prison because of a lack of available rehabilitation programmes.