News
North America
Drugs
Social ties
United States
The ACLU of Wisconsin sent out its annual holiday card in December. But no one on the organization’s mailing list actually received the physical card. Instead, recipients opened up an envelope to find a sad piece of copier paper, printed on either side with black-and-white scans.
Women
Europe
Health
Mental health
Alternatives
United Kingdom
Figures obtained through freedom of information (FoI) requests to NHS trusts providing healthcare to women’s prisons in England found 12% of women receiving care relating to pregnancy in 2023 were diagnosed with the condition, triple the national figure of 4%.
Asia
Activities
Rehabilitation
China
An online charity platform that offers products designed and produced by incarcerated people has garnered favorable feedback from the public. The platform, Made in Prison, offers a variety of products including woodenware, ornaments, stationery, rattan products, and daily necessities.
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Turkey
As the Turkish government’s oppression has been intensifying, the number of incarcerated people has increased by 50,000 in the last six months in the country.
Dominican Republic: officials cram thousands of people facing no charges into overcrowded prisons
News
Central America and the Caribbean
Pre-trial detention
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Dominican Republic
They’re known as “frog men,” incarcerated people who are forced to sleep on prison floors, often next to overflowing toilets or holes in the ground that serve as one. Thousands of them are crammed into the country’s severely overcrowded prisons, some operating at seven times their capacity.
India: states must consider remission of eligible imprisoned people even without their application
News
Asia
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Alternatives
India
States and Union Territories with a policy for the permanent remission of imprisoned people must consider their early release even without a request from them or their family, the Supreme Court ruled.
Africa
Foreign prisoners
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Namibia
Individuals who serve their sentences in their home countries can be rehabilitated, resocialised and reintegrated into the community better than elsewhere. This was said by deputy minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security Lucia Witbooi during a National Assembly session.
Women
Asia
Minors
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Pakistan
Punjab Home Department has taken a commendable step by amending the 125-year-old prison rules under the vision of Punjab’s chief minister for comprehensive jail reforms. According to the spokesperson, in the first phase, 138 jail rules were revised to meet modern standards.
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Social ties
Iran
An incarcerated person has died in an Iranian jail after officials denied him medical treatment and placed him in quarantine as punishment for protesting his lack of care. Hassan Damani, 33, died on February 12 in Lajvardi Prison in Iranshahr, according to human rights groups.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
United Kingdom
Prison is not a place of safety. For women especially, it is a place of chaos and trauma where vulnerable people struggle to maintain their dignity, let alone sanity.
United Kingdom: ‘I stole a mobile phone almost 20 years ago – I’ve spent half my life in prison’
News
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
United Kingdom
A father who stole a mobile phone when he was in the grips of a drug addiction is still languishing in prison almost 20 years later under an “inhumane” indefinite jail term.
North America
Facilities
Rehabilitation
United States
The Bellingham Reentry Center has been serving as a transition house for incarcerated people finishing up the last bit of their prison sentence since 1976, and since 1981 at its Garden Street address. The facility is the only reentry center north of Seattle.
North America
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United States
The man shaping McCotter’s style with comb and scissors is Mike Montoya, a skilled apprentice who is on the cusp of earning his barber’s license. Since his release, he’s been working this job with the stability and flexibility to pursue a productive future.
Europe
Justice
Health
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Four in ten incarcerated people who took their own lives in custody were denied adequate healthcare before their deaths, according to damning new figures exposing the scale of neglect inside Britain’s overcrowded prisons.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Social ties
United Kingdom
A lack of basic care lies behind a surge in the rate of self-harm in women’s prisons, according to a thematic report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor. In the report, Taylor describes a service that is failing and describes the findings as “deeply depressing”.
North America
Justice
Health
Mental health
United States
Lawyers for 25,000 people incarcerated in Arizona have asked a judge to take over health care operations in state-run prisons and appoint an official to run them, saying the state is not capable of fixing deep failures in care even though it has been required to do so over the last decade.