Social ties
North America
Access to legal rights
Social ties
Canada
It’s election day at prisons and jails across the country, and as incarcerated people cast their ballots behind bars, a Canadian Senator is trying to break down barriers so they can make an informed choice.
Tunisia: relentless harassment
Testimonial
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
Tunisia
Sonia Dahmani is a lawyer who has made the defence of women’s rights her personal crusade. She was violently arrested over a comment made during a media appearance, and immediately imprisoned. Her sister, Ramla, has become her voice. This is her account.
Europe
Overcrowding
Social ties
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Belgium
The state of prisons - notably overcrowding, poor staff working conditions and inadequate access to support for imprisoned people - are not conducive to rehabilitation, according to a new report by the Brussels Federation of Institutions for Inmates and Former Prisoners (Fidex).
Europe
Material conditions
Social ties
United Kingdom
HM Inspectorate of Prisons has identified the issue as one of those which frustrate incarcerated people’s efforts to resolve everyday issues such as requests for extra toilet rolls for a cell, making an appointment to speak to staff in another department and applying for courses or prison jobs.
Central America and the Caribbean
Foreign prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Torture
Social ties
El Salvador
Hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent days could face long or indefinite detention in a prison system rife with human rights abuses, according to attorneys and experts on the region.
Women
Europe
Material conditions
Social ties
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
The Lilias Centre, in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, is part of a multimillion-pound experiment to tackle reoffending through rehabilitation. They give incarcerated women greater freedoms than traditional prisons and prepare them for life in the community after their sentence.
North America
Health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
Work
United States
Censorship, threats, and stints in solitary are among the acts of retaliation prison reporters face. Busby was sentenced to seventy-five years in 1999. Since then, he’s worked as a writer and journalist, including a stint as a staff reporter for the Texas prison newspaper The Echo.
Asia
Access to legal rights
Drugs
Material conditions
Death penalty
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Indonesia
Banished from the mainland, imprisoned people in Indonesia’s notorious Nusakambangan Island await news of their fate. The prison complex is home to a number of prisons of varying levels of security. The least volatile can expect to spend their days working in the fields and carving gems.
Malaysia: family wants Suhakam probe on Taiping Hospital, prison after incarcerated person’s death
News
Asia
Justice
Health
Violence
Social ties
Malaysia
The family of an imprisoned person has urged the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to investigate Taiping Hospital and Taiping prison over the circumstances surrounding his death. Sisiliya Joseph, the sister of M Vijian, alleged that authorities concealed the injuries he sustained.
Women
Asia
Minors
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Torture
Social ties
Pakistan
Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights expressed serious concerns over the lack of basic facilities and overcrowded conditions in jails and the delay in provision of justice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
LGBTQI
Health
Mental health
Violence
Social ties
United States
An incarcerated trans woman who underwent top and bottom surgeries was forced into a men’s facility, according to the latest lawsuit from trans people in prison targeting Trump’s executive order.
North America
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Social ties
United States
Colorado lawmakers are trying to make it a right — rather than a privilege — for people in the state’s prisons to receive visitation while incarcerated. Now, they can have their visitation privilege revoked if they violate the Department of Corrections‘ rules.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Activities
Social ties
United Kingdom
Women’s prisons have ‘astonishing gaps in basic decency’ and an ‘overreliance’ on physical force according to new research which examined conditions in four jails.
Crises
Middle East
Death penalty
Social ties
Iran
Two incarcerated people were executed at dawn on Thursday at Isfahan Central Prison without prior notification to their families or an opportunity for final visits.
Europe
Activities
Social ties
Alternatives
Work
United Kingdom
Home detention would replace prison for some people if proposals from the Bar Council are accepted by the ongoing sentencing review being led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke.
North America
Death penalty
Social ties
United States
Since 1992, ACAT-France has been facilitating letter exchanges between volunteers or supporters and people on death row. These letters are rooted in solidarity, faith and connection. A five-part interview.