Mental health
What prison is not
Thematic paper
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
Alternatives
Work
Overcrowded facilities or incarcerated people “treated too well”, systemic violence or “five-star prisons”: what do the facts actually say? Find out via four fact-checking articles to combat disinformation on detention conditions.
Europe
LGBTQI
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Turkey
Gökalp, a member of the LGBTI+ commission of the Socialist Party (SOLDEP), was arrested on May 2 in İzmir and sent to prison. Gökalp’s lawyer, Deniz Can Aydın, called for her immediate release, citing serious health concerns and claims of harassment in prison due to her gender identity.
Crises
Women
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Religion
Iran
Blood runs down prison corridors. Sewage seeps beneath cell doors. Drugged women drift in and out of consciousness. The women’s ward of Sepidar prison, in southern Ahvaz, houses around 400 women, mostly Arab, denied even the most basic human dignities afforded elsewhere in Iran’s penal system.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Ireland
The number of incarcerated people who died in custody increased by 55% last year - up from 20 in 2023 to 31 last year. However, Chief Inspector of Prisons said the “increase is even higher” when the figures are broken down.“If we look purely at deaths in prisons, they’ve actually gone up by 90%”.
Central America and the Caribbean
Minors
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Trinidad & Tobago
A High Court judge awarded more than $3 million in compensation to a brother and sister after ruling that their constitutional rights were violated when they were unlawfully detained in adult prison facilities while they were still minors.
Europe
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
United Kingdom
The number of people dying in prison in Scotland surged to a record number of 64 in 2024, a 60 per cent increase on the previous year, prompting grave concern from experts who warned that the nation’s prison mortality rate is among the highest in Europe.
Europe
Justice
Mental health
Overcrowding
Violence
Romania
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) expressed serious concern about the significant increase in prison overcrowding in Romania and called on Romania and other states to eradicate that and informal prison hierarchy.
Asia
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
Armenia
An incarcerated person has died by suicide at Armenia’s Nubarashen correctional facility. According to the penitentiary service, 54-year-old Z.H. hanged himself on 20 April. This marks the 10th death and the 5th suicide in Armenian prisons within the first four months of this year.
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Belgium
Overcrowding in Ghent prison reached alarming proportions in 2024, according to a new report by the Inspection Committee. The number of complaints from incarcerated people about living conditions in the prison has risen sharply.
Crises
Middle East
Justice
Health
Mental health
Iran
Political prisoner Davood Hadadinia has begun a hunger strike in Yasouj Prison to protest his continued detention and the lack of progress in processing his case.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
United Kingdom
Jordan Burns made several attempts to take his own life during 10 months as an unconvicted person on remand at Scotland’s HMP Addiewell before he suffered an overdose whilst alone in his cell. His grieving mother Janice is suing the prison so it “never happens again”.
North America
Mental health
Social ties
Religion
United States
Thirteen incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals who died within the past year were remembered during the fourth annual Mourning Our Losses ceremony last month inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
Crises
Minors
Middle East
Long-term prisoners
Health
Mental health
Torture
Israel
Israeli authorities released 23-year-old Ahmad Manasra from Nafha Prison in the Negev Desert, ending 10 years of imprisonment. Ahmad Manasra’s lawyer told Al Mayadeen that his client was released in a highly fragile mental state.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Women
Europe
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
United Kingdom
A new HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on HMP Styal found that 39 women had been sent to the prison due to their “acute vulnerabilities and the absence of specialised support in the community.”
Crises
Women
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Work
Syria
Syrian journalist Hanin Gebran details the horrific conditions she endured in Assad’s prisons, shedding light on the gendered violence and torture faced by women journalists under the regime.