Europe
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.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Ireland
There are 376 people in Cork prison today, a new overcrowding record and representing 127% capacity, making it the most overcrowded men’s prison in the country.
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
Italy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni looks set to send more people to jail with her law-and-order crackdown — but the country’s prisons are in no fit state to take more incarcerated people.
Women
Europe
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Cyprus
The prisons department sought to rubbish allegations of unhygienic conditions for incarcerated people – including tainted food and unclean showers – attributing such claims to “ulterior motives”.
Violent lives
Analysis
Inside Outside
Africa
North America
Pre-trial detention
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Torture
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. Ninth piece: torture.
Europe
Minors
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Violence
United Kingdom
The rollout of synthetic pepper spray for use to incapacitate jailed children is “wholly irresponsible” while black and minority imprisoned people are more likely to be subjected to force than white imprisoned people, a watchdog has said.
Culture
Europe
Health
Material conditions
Violence
Activities
Portugal
In a statement, the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP) said that “all inmates are participating in regular meal schedules,” after a group of 30 incarcerated people began a protest to demand better conditions in the prison.
Europe
Facilities
Social ties
Malta
There have been 100 people in prison and a total of 177 children under the age of fourteen who have made use of the visiting facility in Marsa intended for residents of the Corradino Correctional Facility to be able to meet with their children outside of the prison.
Prison: a five-star hotel?
Analysis
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Activities
Social ties
Work
Are prisons actually luxury hotels? In the first episode of our fact-checking series, Prison Insider responds by drawing on the daily reality of life in prisons.
Europe
Discipline
Health
Material conditions
Violence
Belarus
A Belarusian political prisoner, jailed for criticizing President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has died under unclear circumstances, independent media and human rights groups say.
Crises
Europe
Discipline
Material conditions
Violence
Greece
A fire broke out at the Corfu prison, after incarcerated people reportedly set fire to mattresses and plastic in protest against intensive cell checks, according to kerkyrasimera.gr. The protest is concentrated in the E and G wings of the facility.
Europe
LGBTQI
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Turkey
Gökalp, a member of the LGBTI+ commission of the Socialist Party (SOLDEP), was arrested on May 2 in İzmir and sent to prison. Gökalp’s lawyer, Deniz Can Aydın, called for her immediate release, citing serious health concerns and claims of harassment in prison due to her gender identity.
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.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Ireland
The number of incarcerated people who died in custody increased by 55% last year - up from 20 in 2023 to 31 last year. However, Chief Inspector of Prisons said the “increase is even higher” when the figures are broken down.“If we look purely at deaths in prisons, they’ve actually gone up by 90%”.
Europe
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
United Kingdom
The number of people dying in prison in Scotland surged to a record number of 64 in 2024, a 60 per cent increase on the previous year, prompting grave concern from experts who warned that the nation’s prison mortality rate is among the highest in Europe.
Women
Europe
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Ireland
The prison population across Ireland exceeds 5,000 in a system with bed capacity for over 4,600, leaving the Irish Prison Service operating at 14% over capacity.