Work
America
Social ties
Work
United States
Incarcerated people and their families are exploited in an unjust system.
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.
America
Rehabilitation
Work
United States
At any given time, nearly 2 million individuals are incarcerated in the United States. Rooted in the legacy of slavery, intensified by the war on drugs, and sustained by deeply embedded racial inequities, the U.S. legal structure has given rise to a sprawling system of mass incarceration.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United Kingdom
Shared cells in an overcrowded South Yorkshire prison are “often too small to maintain decency and privacy”, inspectors have reported.
Belarus: "worms instead of meat", female ex-political prisoners describe "nightmare' penal system"
News
Crises
Women
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Work
Belarus
Long considered one of Europe’s most repressive states, conditions in Belarus have become even harsher since a brutal security crackdown that followed a disputed presidential election in 2020.
Côte d'Ivoire: prisons in 2025
Analysis
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Minors
Foreign prisoners
LGBTQI
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Suicide
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Alternatives
Work
Côte d’Ivoire
All there is to know about Ivorian prisons in 2025. Key figures, life in detention, references: discover all the data gathered by Prison Insider.
What prison is not
Thematic paper
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
Alternatives
Work
Overcrowded facilities or incarcerated people “treated too well”, systemic violence or “five-star prisons”: what do the facts actually say? Find out via four fact-checking articles to combat disinformation on detention conditions.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Work
Nigeria
The Federal Government has declared a decisive push to slash the number of incarcerated people languishing in custody without trial, describing the situation as a glaring injustice and a major driver of prison congestion nationwide.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Drugs
Overcrowding
Activities
Social ties
Work
United Kingdom
Staff corruption is a “major problem” at an overcrowded West London prison where over a third of incarcerated people are testing positive for illegal drugs, prison inspectors have found.
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Work
Cyprus
Alexandros Clerides, said that the government must be held accountable for the chronic overcrowding in Cyprus’ prisons, which currently operate at 200 per cent capacity.
Africa
Material conditions
Work
South Africa
Prison bakeries in South Africa are helping the correctional services department (DCS) cut costs, promote self-sufficiency and sustainability and help incarcerated people gain practical experience while they receive a daily gratuity ranging from R2 to R9.
Asia
Elderly prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Drugs
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
Japan
For the first time in more than a century, Japan has overhauled its prison system with new rules placing greater emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment to combat the country’s high recidivism rates.
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.
Women
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
Sierra Leone
After spending almost four years in prison in Freetown, football has provided Marie with the chance of a fresh start in life. While behind bars at a correctional facility in the capital, she enrolled in the first-ever coaching course for women in prison.
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Rehabilitation
Work
New Zealand
The retiring chair of the Parole Board Sir Ron Young says it’s an injustice that some people don’t get an early release from prison because of a lack of available rehabilitation programmes.