Justice
Pre-trial detention
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
New Zealand
New Zealand’s prisons hold about 4,500 men and women who have not been convicted of any crime. They are on remand, by law presumed innocent, awaiting trial.
United States: California sues Los Angeles County over "inhumane" conditions in its jail system
News
North America
Justice
Health
Material conditions
United States
Citing “inhumane conditions” and a “shocking rate of deaths”, Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced that the state is suing Los Angeles County over conditions in its jail system.
China: draft revision to prison law review, including provisions for foreign incarcerated people
News
Asia
Foreign prisoners
Justice
Social ties
Rehabilitation
China
A draft revision to China’s Prison Law was submitted to the 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) for its second reading.
Crises
North America
Justice
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
United States
Lawyers requested swift cooling measures in a prison with no A/C. One man shares the dangerous conditions inside while people await a judge’s ruling
North America
Justice
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
United States
Facing growing pressure from advocacy groups, lawsuits and climate projections that show hotter days ahead, some state prison systems are moving to install air conditioning and expand cooling measures — though many facilities remain years away from significant upgrades.
North America
Women
Justice
Health
Facilities
United States
A group of incarcerated people at Michigan’s only women’s prison filed a class action lawsuit against the state, claiming they were exposed to toxic black mold for years.
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.
Oceania
Justice
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Australia
Australia is confronting a significant issue with reincarceration, with a large number of individuals released from prison each year finding themselves back behind bars.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Justice
Material conditions
Alternatives
Maria Teresa Manuela is the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa. She shares insights into the African Commission’s efforts to uphold the rights of people deprived of their liberty.
Asia
Elderly prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Drugs
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
Japan
For the first time in more than a century, Japan has overhauled its prison system with new rules placing greater emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment to combat the country’s high recidivism rates.
Africa
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mental health
South Africa
People who are found unfit to stand trial or be held criminally liable for a crime due to their psychiatric state are supposed to receive specialised care in the health system. But hundreds are being kept in prisons.
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Justice
Material conditions
Social ties
Iran
Iran slammed France for filing a case against it at the International Court of Justice over the detention of two French nationals in conditions Paris denounced as inhumane. Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been able to receive only four consular visits during their three-year detention.
Crises
North America
LGBTQI
Justice
Material conditions
Death penalty
Alternatives
United States
Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken actions to eviscerate due process and the rule of law, make prison and jail conditions worse, expand the use of extreme sentences and harsh law enforcement tactics, eliminate oversight, undermine solutions that reduce incarceration.
Crises
North America
Discipline
Justice
Health
Material conditions
United States
The MacArthur Justice Center filed a class-action case on behalf of six incarcerated people at Algoa Correctional Center. All of them are especially sensitive to heat due to their age or underlying medical conditions, or have spent time in solitary confinement.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Justice
Health
Violence
Georgia
A 46-year-old man, Ioseb Gorgadze, died, May 4, after three months of treatment at the Vivamedi clinic, where he was transferred from prison in late January with multiple injuries. His lawyer claims that he was “severely beaten” in custody and alleges abuse by prison staff.