Africa
Locking up the opposition
Analysis
Africa
America
Asia
Europe
LGBTQI
Access to legal rights
Justice
Material conditions
Torture
In this long-format article, Prison Insider explores how defending human rights can become a reason for incarceration, in every part of the world.
Wrinkles and punishment
Analysis
Inside Outside
Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Elderly prisoners
Europe
Middle East
Prison Insider, represented by Clara Grisot, contributed twelve compositions to the book InsideOutside to articulate, in a few words, the current challenges of prison life. Eleventh piece: ageing prison population.
The shadow of colonialism (III)
Analysis
Africa
America
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Asia
Justice
Facilities
Prison Insider is dedicating a long-format, three-part article to the colonial heritage of prison systems. Part three: Prison, a registered design.
The shadow of colonialism (II)
Analysis
Africa
America
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Asia
Justice
Facilities
Prison Insider is dedicating a long-format, three-part article to the colonial heritage of prison systems. Part two: post-independence, a sense of unfinished business.
Côte d'Ivoire: prisons in 2025
Analysis
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Minors
Foreign prisoners
LGBTQI
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Suicide
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Alternatives
Work
Côte d’Ivoire
All there is to know about Ivorian prisons in 2025. Key figures, life in detention, references: discover all the data gathered by Prison Insider.
Burundi: forbidden to defend
Interview
Africa
Women
Minors
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Burundi
S. is a lawyer. She works to defend the rights of women and children. She was imprisoned from February 2023 to April 2024 because of her activism. We met her during her visit to Paris (France).
Africa
Crises
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Eswatini
A Cuban man deported by the United States to Eswatini is on a hunger strike at a maximum-security prison, having been held there for more than three months without charge or access to legal counsel under the Trump administration’s third-country program.
Africa
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Social ties
South Sudan
When traditional herbs failed to calm the turmoil in his mind, Samat Nyuk’s family felt they had no other option: they asked local authorities to detain their 33-year-old son.
Africa
Facilities
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Rwanda
National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) has reported a 30 per cent reduction in correctional facilities overcrowding in Rwanda since 2023/2024.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Work
Nigeria
The Federal Government has declared a decisive push to slash the number of incarcerated people languishing in custody without trial, describing the situation as a glaring injustice and a major driver of prison congestion nationwide.
Africa
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
South Africa
The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) opened a two-day consultation in Johannesburg focusing on health in prisons and the draft SADC model law on prison oversight.
Africa
Minors
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Nigeria
A Lagos-based non-governmental organisation, Zarephath Aid (ZA), has called for urgent reforms in Nigeria’s justice sector, urging the judiciary and government agencies to go beyond speeches and take decisive steps to decongest correctional facilities, enforce child rights, and curb police excesses…
Africa
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
South Sudan
State lawmakers in Western Equatoria visited Yambio Central Prison, urging immediate government action to address what they described as severe overcrowding, critical shortages of food and medicine, and inadequate conditions for incarcerated people with infectious diseases.
Africa
Justice
Health
Material conditions
Ethiopia
A cross section of Nigerians whose relatives are in Kaliti Prison, Ethiopia, have appealed to the Federal Government to intervene to secure the release or transfer of their loved ones.
Hostile territory
Analysis
Inside Outside
Africa
Crises
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Prison Insider, represented by Clara Grisot, contributed twelve compositions to the book InsideOutside to articulate, in a few words, the current challenges of prison life. Tenth piece: the climate challenge.
The shadow of colonialism (I)
Analysis
Thematic paper
Africa
America
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Asia
Justice
Prison Insider is dedicating a long-format, three-part article to the colonial heritage of prison systems. Part one: the origin of a system.
Africa
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
South Sudan
More than 50 incarcerated people at Wau Central Prison in Western Bahr el Ghazal State are suffering from skin diseases amid a growing shortage of medical supplies.
Africa
Access to legal rights
Drugs
Material conditions
Social ties
Nigeria
Journalist and activist Agba Jalingo has described Nigerian detention centres and prisons as hubs of extortion and illicit activities, alleging that access to basic rights in custody depends largely on money.
Africa
Drugs
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Africa
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) member of Parliament (MP), Betty Diale, has called for urgent action to fix broken correctional services. According to Diale, the correctional services system is exposed to overcrowding, collapsing infrastructure, rampant gangsterism and contraband smuggling.
Africa
Access to legal rights
Social ties
Eswatini
Five men deported by the United States to Eswatini in July have been held in a maximum-security prison for seven weeks without charge or explanation and with no access to legal counsel.