News
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.
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.
Asia
Elderly prisoners
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
India
In the advisory, the MHA reiterated its commitment to the welfare of elderly citizens and emphasised the need for “special accessible accommodations in prisons” to meet the physical needs of old incarcerated people.
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Health
Mental health
Suicide
Lebanon
The suicide of a Syrian man in Lebanon’s Roumieh Central Prison has cast a new light on the dire conditions inside the country’s prisons, particularly medical neglect and the delay of trials.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Ireland
There are 376 people in Cork prison today, a new overcrowding record and representing 127% capacity, making it the most overcrowded men’s prison in the country.
Pre-trial detention
Asia
Access to legal rights
Religion
China
Hong Kong has proposed tightening its prison rules to restrict inmate visits, including those made by religious leaders and lawyers, if the authorities deem it necessary for national security.
Asia
Discipline
Health
Torture
Violence
Myanmar (Burma)
Since his transfer to Obo Prison in Mandalay last month, prominent anti-coup protest leader Wai Moe Aung has suffered brutal mistreatment and been deprived of medical attention by prison authorities, according to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM).