News
Crises
North America
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
United States
Over the past two decades, nearly 13,000 people have perished behind bars during America’s summer months. However, many of these deaths are not typically attributed to heat, the product of poor death-counting practices that have led to an undercount of heat-related deaths for decades.
North America
Europe
Oceania
Justice
United States
US plea deal allows WikiLeaks founder to return to Australia after an extraordinary legal fight spanning more than a decade.
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
MSPs have voted in favour of releasing more than 500 prisoners early to address overcrowding in Scottish jails.
Women
Asia
Long-term prisoners
Health
Torture
Violence
Work
North Korea
Between early 2020 and August 2022, there were approximately 40 deaths among the 500 or so female inmates serving life sentences at the camp.
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Scottish prisons are in crisis and risk breaching inmates’ human rights, according to a new official report. Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee has called on the government to carry out an urgent review of the prison system.
Crises
Middle East
Death penalty
Iran
For the past 19 weeks, prisoners across various Iranian prisons have been actively participating in a civil campaign against the death penalty.
In the campaign’s 19th week, eight political and religious prisoners from Ward 3 of Ghezelhesar Prison joined their ranks.
North America
Justice
Material conditions
Work
United States
Forced labor under the threat of punishment. Hourly wages under a dollar an hour. Having to choose between purchasing food or personal items. These are the conditions facing incarcerated New Yorkers that advocates say are why the state should amend its constitution to bar involuntary labor.
Women
Europe
Discipline
Mental health
Violence
United Kingdom
Women are still being routinely strip-searched in prison despite promises by Scottish ministers five years ago to reduce the practice, BBC News has found.
North America
Justice
Facilities
Overcrowding
United States
All over the country, architecture firms make the case for bigger jails — then get hired to design them.
North America
Material conditions
Social ties
United States
Connecticut families brought an end to expensive prison communication, providing a lifeline for the voices behind bars. But consistent contact still isn’t guaranteed.
Crises
Middle East
Facilities
Iran
The Iranian Bureau of Prisons is set to construct 70 new prisons and penitentiaries across the country, according to a new report by data analysis group Iran Open Data. More than 1.128 trillion Tomans (approximately $19.1 million) have been allocated for these projects.
Asia
Justice
Material conditions
Protest
Violence
Myanmar (Burma)
The 13 prisoners have been held in solitary confinement since they were targeted in a crackdown on unrest more than a month ago.
Africa
Access to legal rights
Justice
South Africa
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said it is prepared and ready for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections to be conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Wednesday as a total of 14 753 inmates have registered to vote.