Violence
South Africa: seven officials from Mangaung prison suspended after murder of incarcerated person
News
Africa
Justice
Violence
Social ties
South Africa
Seven prison officials at the Mangaung Correctional Centre have been suspended following the murder of an imprisoned person. Mpho Mkhumbeni died on 12 March, following an unauthorised raid of his cell where he was pepper-sprayed and beaten the night before.
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.
Asia
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Health
Violence
Religion
Azerbaijan
Multiple imprisoned people have gone on hunger strike over the last two weeks. The first person to do so, prominent opposition politician Tofig Yagublu, a member of the opposition Musavat Party, announced his ‘death hunger strike’ in March after being sentenced to nine years in prison.
Crises
Asia
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Myanmar (Burma)
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), more than 2,000 political prisoners have died in Myanmar’s prisons since the country was plunged into conflict by a military coup more than four years ago.
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Minors
Middle East
Health
Violence
Israel
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition, and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon.
Crises
Women
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Death penalty
Violence
Iran
Iran executed at least 169 people in January and February alone, according to Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
North America
Minors
Justice
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Violence
United States
Jones is among thousands of people seeking accountability under a new state law that eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims. It was passed in 2023 with the Catholic Church abuse scandal in mind.
Europe
Suicide
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
United Kingdom
Overcrowding is a trigger for poor performances in prisons, says a research document produced by the Institute for Government. It calls for increased education and training for imprisoned people, and the introduction of a minimum standard of provision.
Crises
South America
Foreign prisoners
Torture
Violence
Venezuela
Foro Penal, a Caracas-based legal assistance group suggests that nearly 1,000 people remain behind bars for political reasons in the South American country. That number includes foreign or dual nationals from about 13 different countries.
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.
A chain of imprisonment
Testimonial
Middle East
Long-term prisoners
Material conditions
Death penalty
Torture
Violence
Work
Iran
Soheil Arabi is an Iranian blogger and photojournalist. He has been imprisoned for several years for his activism. Some time ago, Soheil contacted us to tell his story. We share it with you here.
Crises
Women
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Work
Syria
Syrian journalist Hanin Gebran details the horrific conditions she endured in Assad’s prisons, shedding light on the gendered violence and torture faced by women journalists under the regime.
Women
Europe
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
United Kingdom
Most women in jail have been victims of more serious crimes than they themselves have committed, writes Andrea Coomber. We’ve known how to tackle this crisis for almost 20 years – now it’s time to put it into action.
Women bearing the weight of the law
Analysis
Africa
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Women
Asia
Europe
LGBTQI
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Justice
Drugs
Death penalty
Violence
More and more women across the world are being imprisoned, mostly for minor, non-violent offences. What discriminatory and punitive logic is being applied? What is being done to fight back against it?
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.
Crises
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Religion
Israel
The Prisoners’ and Freed Prisoners’ Affairs Authority has condemned the “tragic” conditions faced by detained Palestinian in Shatta prison. The authority described a litany of human rights violations, including brutal beatings, frequent use of tear gas, and inadequate food provisions.
Türkiye: broken spirits
Testimonial
Crises
Asia
Mental health
Torture
Violence
Religion
China
Subjected to arbitrary arrests and forced labor, sterilizations to torture, more than one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other minorities are estimated to have been locked up in so-called “re-education” camps and prisons in the region over the last decade.
Africa
Crises
Women
Minors
Protest
Overcrowding
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
At least 153 women are believed to have died and as many as 132 were said to have been burned to death as some 4,000 incarcerated men broke out of the Munzenze prison in Goma during an assault on the city by M23 forces.