Testimonials
Interviews
Prison Insider reaches out to individuals with expertise on prison. Researchers, members of associations and institutions, decision-makers, stakeholders and individuals called to intervene in prisons: they all offer diverse viewpoints on imprisonment. This section offers untold insights and specialist opinions exploring various prison-related issues.
Ukraine: “prisons are left on their own”
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Violence
Social ties
Ukraine
Information about prison is not easily accessible, even less during the war. Prison Insider is seeking to update its information about Ukrainian prisons.
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Denmark: on behalf of prisoners
Interview
Canada: "a drop in the ocean"
Interview
Coronavirus
North America
Health
Facilities
Overcrowding
Canada
“Since prisons are such confined and notoriously unsanitary places, vaccinating the prisoners was an urgent matter. At the very least, vaccinating the oldest and most vulnerable among them was a top priority.”
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Pre-trial detention
Asia
Middle East
Overcrowding
Death penalty
Human rights organisations in the region feel like they are fighting alone against capital punishment. People are still sentenced to death and executed regularly. What is the situation in Palestine?
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Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
France
Thierry Chantegret is a photographer with the French National Preventive Mechanism team. He spoke with us about the role of photography, his approach, and how he gets down to the facts.
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USA: inside the kids’ cells
Interview
North America
Minors
Material conditions
United States
They are 60,000. Who? The minors incarcerated in America’s prisons. Richard Ross is a photographer. His ‘Juvenile in Justice’ work has been giving them a voice for the past two decades.
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Tunisia: Silent abuses
Interview
Middle East
LGBTI
Justice
Violence
Tunisia
Arbitrary detention, lack of medical care, stigmatisation, and violence: LGBTQI++ prisoners are subjected to all kinds of untold abuse.
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Belgium: prison within prison
Interview
Europe
Discipline
Mental health
Material conditions
Belgium
When can someone be sent to solitary confinement? A new report strongly criticises the use of solitary confinement and the conditions of detention observed there. Interview.
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Senegal: out of step, outlawed
Interview
Africa
LGBTI
Justice
Material conditions
Violence
Senegal
A new bill is looking to toughen punishment for homosexuality. There are serious concerns about detention conditions for LGBTI people. Interview.
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Asia
Access to legal rights
Justice
Material conditions
Death penalty
Japan
Death penalty is an ongoing issue despite international criticism. What is the current situation in Japan regarding the death penalty?
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Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Mental health
Switzerland
Psychiatric expertise has grown in the last few years, especially in assessing recidivism risk. Can risk really be predicted? Interview.
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Europe
Health
Mental health
Suicide
France
Fresnes, Fleury-Mérogis, la Santé: for 25 years, Cyrille Canetti witnessed the shift of prison psychiatry. (Critical) interview about psychiatry and prison.
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Uruguay: The straw that broke the camel’s back
Investigations
Interview
South America
Material conditions
Protest
Violence
Uruguay
The Executive Power of Uruguay remitted the Bill on the Organisation of the National Prison System to the parliament. This bill aims to transform the National Institute of Rehabilitation (INR, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación), the body that governs prisons, into a decentralised entity that is…
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Coronavirus
Pre-trial detention
Minors
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
France
The Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty feels ‘useful everywhere’. One year after taking office, Dominique Simonnot responds to our questions in a candid interview.
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Mexico: Torture feeds corruption
Interview
“Hearing the sounds of the city”
Interview
Facilities
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Work
France
Detention villages, open prisons, small prisons: what is there to say? We asked geographer Olivier Milhaud three questions. For him, large prisons built outside of cities are “a disaster”.
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Middle East
Material conditions
Death penalty
Torture
Bahrain
Use of the death penalty has increased by 600% in the last decade. Many of those sentenced to death are political prisoners. Torture and the death penalty are allegedly used as strategic tools against political opponents.
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