Health
Women
Europe
Health
Material conditions
United Kingdom
Across the world, incarcerated pregnant women are often held in deplorable conditions, leading some to miscarry or give birth alone inside a cell, say campaigners.
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Activities
Nepal
Udayapur District Prison, built to accommodate just 50 incarcerated people, is currently housing more than four times its capacity, creating serious management and safety challenges.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United Kingdom
Shared cells in an overcrowded South Yorkshire prison are “often too small to maintain decency and privacy”, inspectors have reported.
Crises
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Social ties
Iran
Taher Naghavi, an imprisoned lawyer who once represented political prisoners and families seeking justice, began his hunger strike on October 27 after prison authorities rejected his request for medical furlough.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Torture
Syria
Syria’s missing persons body is reviewing the Damascus Dossier as families say they have blindsided with details of relatives’ fates leaked without permission.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Israel
Aspects of daily life behind bars include cells so crowded that incarcerated people cannot move without climbing over one another, and others sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor for weeks or months.
Africa
Minors
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
South Sudan
The revelations emerged after an inspection by the South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State Assembly’s Committee on Gender, Child, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, exposing what legislators describe as an unfolding humanitarian crisis inside the facility.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Ireland
The Irish Prison Service is fighting a “losing battle” against overcrowding, with the current system at “breaking point”, penal reformers have said.
Pre-trial detention
Asia
Europe
Health
Overcrowding
Armenia
Human rights activists blamed the Armenian law-enforcement and health authorities for a near doubling of incarcerated people deaths at the country’s prisons recorded this year.
Crises
Women
Europe
Health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
Belarus
A former political prisoner, who was recently released, spoke about the detention conditions. She also discussed the pressure faced by political prisoners, healthcare in the penal colony, and the reason behind the disappearance of historical books from the library.
North America
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
United States
A lawsuit challenging extreme heat in a Florida prison collected temperature readings during the summer. It found brutal heat persisted day and night.
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Iran
Extended water cuts at Fashafoyeh Prison in Tehran have created several health problems for incarcerated people as the capital implements water rationing, a human rights organization reported.
Europe
Minors
Access to legal rights
Health
Torture
Social ties
Turkey
At least 2,651 people were subjected to ill-treatment during detentions at 191 peaceful protests, including 27 children and 46 journalists, according to the Human Rights Association.
Crises
Central America and the Caribbean
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Torture
El Salvador
A report released by human rights groups determined that the treatment of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants imprisoned in El Salvador at the request of the U.S. amounted to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance under international law.
Elderly prisoners
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
There were 31 deaths in custody in 2024, the highest number since the office of the Inspector of Prisons was established in 2012.
Central America and the Caribbean
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Haiti
The Association of Volunteers for the Reintegration of Prisoners visited the Cap-Haïtien prison. The findings are alarming and reflect a detention situation marked by a severe deterioration of both human and material conditions.
Pre-trial detention
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Torture
A Kurdish prisoner held in Iran for over two years is in critical condition after authorities denied him medical treatment following torture, a human rights group said.
Women
Europe
Health
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
United Kingdom
The number of people dying in prisons in Wales and England has reached its highest total for a 12-month period this century, figures show.