July 2025
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Myanmar (Burma)
At least 17 political prisoners have died in Myanmar prisons so far in 2025 due to being denied proper medical treatment, according to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM).
Central America and the Caribbean
Europe
Foreign prisoners
United Kingdom
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has pledged to create over 30,000 new prison places if he becomes the next Prime Minister, and to send Britain’s “worst offenders to jail in El Salvador” as part of a five-year plan to halve crime rates.
Crises
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Drugs
Death penalty
Iran
Human rights groups have expressed serious concern over the growing number of executions of Afghan migrants in Iran, warning of rising injustice and lack of fair trials.
Crises
Middle East
Discipline
Violence
Iran
Guards at Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj violently raided the political prisoners’ ward and executed two people, according to social media reports from a political prisoner.
Central America and the Caribbean
Facilities
Rehabilitation
Trinidad & Tobago
Between 2020 and 2025, amid growing public pressure and a criminal justice system in crisis, the PNM Government announced several plans to modernise the nation’s prisons.
Crises
Middle East
Discipline
Health
Material conditions
Social ties
Egypt
Mohamed al-Beltagy launched an open-ended hunger strike in Badr 3 prison, slamming years of isolation, medical neglect, and systematic abuse of incarcerated people.
Pre-trial detention
Oceania
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Australia
Western Australia’s Inspector of Custodial Services has called for an inquiry into the “entirely unacceptable” conditions at Hakea Prison.
Central America and the Caribbean
Foreign prisoners
Health
Torture
Violence
Social ties
El Salvador
Venezuela has announced an investigation into claims migrants sent to a prison in El Salvador from the US suffered human rights abuses.
North America
Pre-trial detention
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
United States
Twenty-eight people have died in county jails so far this year. The county’s death toll is running alongside the deadliest years on record.
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
Violence
Netherlands
A recent investigation among 350 employees working directly with people in prison in the Dutch prison system reveals widespread violence and high work pressure, prompting concerns about staff retention.
Africa
Crises
North America
Foreign prisoners
Discipline
Eswatini
Five immigrants deported by the United States to the small southern African nation of Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program are being held in solitary confinement in various prisons for an undetermined time, a government spokesperson said.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Overcrowding
Malta
A Council of Europe report on prison populations flagged how Malta was one of 13 countries to see a “significant increase” in prison populations in 2024.
Concrete to counter overcrowding?
Analysis
Europe
Justice
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Could building prisons help address overcrowding? Prison Insider takes apart, brick by brick, the fragile foundations of this proposition in the second article of our fact-checking series.
Women
Europe
Justice
United Kingdom
Many have welcomed the Government’s announcement that it will decriminalise rough sleeping. However, punishment for being homeless, using Anti-Social Behaviour Injunctions (ASBI) is set to continue and to be widened with new Respect Orders introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill.
Africa
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Sudan
Yambio Central Prison, a colonial-era facility built in Western Equatoria State in the 1940s, requires urgent renovation due to deteriorating infrastructure and poor living conditions for incarcerated people, a senior prison official said.