Women
Connecting Stories Beyond Bars
America
Pre-trial detention
Women
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
‘Connecting Stories Beyond Bars - The invisible impact of prison on relatives’ is a six-episode docuseries produced with Acifad (Argentina), Amparar (Brasil), Relais Famille (Canada), OIP-SF (France), Documenta (Mexico) and POPS (UK).
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Ethiopia : sleeping in turns
Interview
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Access to legal rights
Material conditions
Social ties
Senegal
Maïmouna Diouf served several years in a women’s prison, found guilty of infanticide, a charge she denies. She says conditions were harsh — dirty mattresses on the floor, a lack of sufficient food and hygiene products.
Women
Europe
Justice
Health
United Kingdom
Pregnant incarcerated women in England are being handcuffed to prison officers – often male – during intimate vaginal examinations and long, agonising births.
America
Crises
Women
Justice
Mental health
Facilities
Suicide
Social ties
Mexico
Designed as a maximum security facility, Cefereso No. 16 is Mexico’s only federal women’s prison, and concern over its living conditions is rising. Interview with Algaraza.
Women
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Myanmar (Burma)
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) reported that thousands of female political detainees across Myanmar are suffering from serious menstrual disorders and reproductive health complications.
Pre-trial detention
Women
Asia
Access to legal rights
Overcrowding
Death penalty
Sri Lanka
The emergency has been caused by a lack of adequate facilities and the extensive use of preventive detention pending trial. There are at least 40,000 people in prison on the island in facilities with a total capacity of only 10,500 places.
Africa
Women
Access to legal rights
Death penalty
Sudan
The women are reportedly without legal representation amid the collapse of the justice system, and the restriction of the work of legal aid organisations. The activists highlight that the women’s situation “requires urgent and effective solidarity”.
America
Pre-trial detention
Women
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Argentina
Prison population grew 7.1% in 2024, with property crimes and short sentences driving overcrowding; five provinces exceed the national incarceration average, authorities warn that tougher laws and short sentences are fuelling sustained rise in numbers.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
Fraser Maclean, policy manager at Commonweal Housing, writes about why women face challenges to the greatest extent after leaving prison.
Women
Mental health
Material conditions
Social ties
United States
The conditions at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility are akin to solitary confinement, local experts say — an apparent violation of state law.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Facilities
Activities
Work
Luxembourg
A report of Luxembourg’s detention facilities shows that prison conditions “have improved” since the last report was published in 2018. But standards of prison conditions for women are “lower than that of men”, Ombudsman Claudine Konsbruck has said.
Africa
Women
Minors
Facilities
Overcrowding
Zambia
Zambia Correctional Service Commissioner General, Fredrick Chilukutu, has disclosed that the country’s prison population has exceeded 28,000, far surpassing the facilities’ holding capacity of 12,000.
India: Telangana prisons see 12% rise in incarcerated people in 2025, cybercrime cases jump 135%
News
Women
Asia
Foreign prisoners
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Facilities
Overcrowding
India
Telangana prisons recorded 42,566 admissions in 2025, marking an 11.8% increase compared to the previous year, with sharp rises seen in cybercrime and drunk driving cases.
Pre-trial detention
Women
Asia
Access to legal rights
China
A jailed activist has lost a judicial review against a Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) rule that prohibits incarcerated women from wearing shorts in summer.