Mental health
Crises
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Alternatives
United States
Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.
Oceania
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Australia
Prison guards switched off the water to the cell of a mentally ill and dying man as punishment for his strange behaviour, joked that his repeated pleas for help were “entertaining”, and then left him unobserved to die at Silverwater jail from a treatable illness that was inexplicably missed.
Prison under the skin
Analysis
North America
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Rehabilitation
(4) Time spent in detention has a lasting impact on bodies and minds. It leaves persistent wounds and scars that make it harder to re-enter society and affect how people occupy their space.
North America
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
United States
Moldy mattresses, 24/7 lights and constant noise contribute to a persistent health and safety crisis in prisons and jails. The Marshall Project and Los Angeles Times have identified more than 30 lawsuits regarding sleep deprivation behind bars over the last three decades.
North America
Women
LGBTQI
Health
Mental health
United States
With new restrictions on gender-affirming care, prisons confiscate underwear from trans people and compel them to cut their hair.
Africa
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Activities
Social ties
How can the complexity of information on prison conditions be made accessible and used to support change? The Prison Life Index is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between academics and members of civil society.
United States: juvenile detention centers in North Carolina under scrutiny for use of isolation
News
North America
Minors
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Social ties
United States
Teenagers in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system are routinely being locked alone in their rooms for as much as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit and advocates for young people in custody.
Oceania
Long-term prisoners
Health
Mental health
New Zealand
Contracts for the Improving Mental Health Service is due to end from June 2025. Mental health workers fear some imprisoned people who are suicidal, psychotic or suffering other serious psychological problems will be left without support when their contracts end.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Drugs
Facilities
Alternatives
Ireland
More investment is needed to better support people struggling with addiction, poverty, and trauma to reduce Ireland’s prison population, a general election hustings by the Irish Prison Reform Trust (IPRT) has heard.
Crises
Elderly prisoners
Europe
Mental health
United Kingdom
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that 38 of the prison’s 138, or 27.5% of incarcerated people, as of July 2024 are on medication associated with managing a diagnosed mental-health condition or addressing symptoms.
Burying the problems
Analysis
Inside Outside
Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Mental health
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. Seventh piece: mental health.
Crises
North America
Health
Mental health
Overcrowding
United States
Another person has died in Los Angeles County jails, marking the 24th in-custody death so far this year and the 69th since the start of 2023.
Central America and the Caribbean
Mental health
Jamaica
Applications by the Legal Aid Council for the Supreme Court to release six incarcerated people with mental disorders, who were unfit to plead, were refused because the Judge Leighton Pusey found that there were no appropriate accommodations for them.
Prisons in the eye of the storm
Analysis
Thematic paper
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.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Protest
Social ties
Iran
Three women political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin prison have gone on hunger and medicine strikes to protest their conditions and treatment.
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.
"Making every death a public affair"
Interview
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Deaths occurring in prison are frequent, but often kept quiet. Civil society groups are joining forces to draw attention, advocate for greater transparency and raise awareness of prison deaths. Discussion with two groups: one in France, the other in Switzerland.
Morocco: archaic sentencing
Interview
Africa
Justice
Mental health
Death penalty
Social ties
Morocco
Morocco has just celebrated 30 years of its death penalty moratorium, yet its courts continue to hand down death penalties. Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), along with its partners, conducted a new fact-finding mission on the impact of the death penalty in Moroccan prisons. Interview.
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.
Europe
Mental health
Activities
United Kingdom
Inmates at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale, were given safety goggles and allowed to demolish the wooden structures with various implements. The ‘pallet-smashing workshop’ was praised by Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, for allowing prisoners to release their pent-up anger.
North America
Women
Mental health
Activities
Rehabilitation
United States
Members of the public can send their dog at the Washington Corrections Center for Women for boarding, grooming and training through a program founded with the belief that human-animal bonds could be beneficial to people in prison.