Europe
Prisons in the eye of the storm
Analysis
Crises
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Prisons, many of which are old and located in vulnerable areas, are being severely affected by climate change. What are prison administrations doing in response to these disasters? Overview.
Prisons in transition
Analysis
Crises
North America
Europe
Oceania
Facilities
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
The climate is changing and the environment is deteriorating. Prison administrations are being forced to radically review the way they operate. How are they doing so far? Panorama.
Africa
Crises
Asia
Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mary Lawlor is the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders since 2020. She tells us how her work, despite its limits, can help them, and reflects on the criminalisation they face around the world.
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Five of the former most senior judges have intervened in the debate over the prison population crisis to urge the government to reverse the trend of locking people up for longer – declaring that ‘radical solutions’ are required to tackle the prison population crisis.
Europe
Minors
Mental health
Drugs
Protest
Overcrowding
Violence
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
Prisons across the country are in a deep state of crisis – the extent of which is exposed by the latest statistics. Soaring rates of violence, self-harm and drug misuse have become widespread in overcrowded prisons in England and Wales. The prison population remains “within a few hundred places of…
United Kingdom: government will not repay ‘bed and board’ deductions to all wrongfully imprisoned
News
Europe
Justice
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
Some victims of historic miscarriages of justice have been told by the government that bed and board costs for the time they spent in prison will be deducted from their compensation payments. Miscarriage of justice victims say money taken from compensation payouts is additional punishment.
Women
Elderly prisoners
Europe
Minors
Health
Material conditions
Turkey
Lawyers associations in Turkey visited the Batman closed prison to report human rights violations experienced by the group of youths arrested for dancing to Kurdish music. Accordingly, the group was strip searched and forced to listen to nationalistic marches as “punishment.”
Europe: criminalisation of existence
Interview
Europe
Foreign prisoners
Justice
How do security policies target migrants, the economically vulnerable, or racialised individuals? A workshop examined the decriminalisation of migration and poverty and the challenges civil society faces in presenting a counter-narrative. Lawyers Without Borders reflected on the discussions.
France: Olympic Games under control
Interview
Europe
Material conditions
Suicide
Overcrowding
Italy
“This is a high figure compared to the same month of July in 2023 and 2022, when 34 were recorded (with an increase of 16 deaths)” read the guarantor’s report. “There are 48 men and 2 women, 27 are Italian and 23 foreigners, from 14 different countries. Of the people who took their own lives, 19 (3…
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Bulgaria
Minister of Justice Maria Pavlova opened on Friday a new dormitory at the prison in Plovdiv. The poor state of the Hebros dormitories had led to continuous complaints about living conditions from prisoners, Pavlova said. The new building, she said, meets all European and international requirements,…
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
The Inspector of Prisons has said the record levels of overcrowding in jails is “deplorable” and that he has been “sounding the alarm” of the crisis since he took up the position in August 2022.Mark Kelly also expressed grave concern at the “undesirable uptick in physical violence” the worsening ov…
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Prisons will run out of space within days, putting the public at risk and endangering prisoners and staff, the Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) has warned in a letter to the leaders of all UK political parties. The PGA, which represents 95 per cent of prison governors, says that shortly even pol…
Pınar Selek: “I saw the gravity of imprisonment”
Testimonial
Women
Europe
Justice
Torture
Turkey
Pınar Selek is a Turkish sociologist, feminist and anti-militarist activist. In 1998, she was arrested then imprisoned for two and a half years in Türkiye, on the basis of false allegations. She explains the causes she fights for, her arrest and torture, the conditions of her imprisonment and her r…
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.
Pınar Selek: “Türkiye is like one huge prison.”
Testimonial
Women
Europe
Justice
Torture
Turkey
Pınar Selek is a sociologist, feminist and anti-militarist activist. In 1998, she was imprisoned for two and a half years in Türkiye, on the basis of false allegations. She explains the causes she fights for, her arrest and torture, the conditions of her imprisonment and her reconstruction. Part 1
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
MSPs have voted in favour of releasing more than 500 prisoners early to address overcrowding in Scottish jails.