Data from ICPR’s latest edition of the World Female Imprisonment List (published in February 2025) have been used extensively in two articles in The Guardian. The data in the List are compiled from information held on the World Prison Brief (WPB) database and lead researcher Helen Fair is also quoted noting the gaps in the availability of data on the number of women in prison around the world.
The Agora Center for Research recently released a report documenting brutal conditions in Uganda's prisons, where thousands of prisoners are forced into unpaid labor and experience violence and degradation. This blog examines how Uganda's prison system, despite more than six decades of political independence, continues to function according to its original colonial design: not as a site for rehabilitation, but as a mechanism for labor extraction and state control.
The event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Prison Brief website has been postponed until early in 2026.
World Prison Brief data has been cited in an article in The Economist looking at the increasing number of European countries that are renting prison cells in neighbouring countries to reduce prison overcrowding by sending their foreign national prisoners there.
The law, policy and practice of prison work provision in Brazil are explained in a new briefing by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research.
In January, ICPR submitted evidence to the Independent Sentencing Review led by the Rt Hon David Gauke. The Review panel has now published the first part of its report, making frequent use of our World Prison Brief data and the comparative figures we provided in our evidence.
New prison population data reveals that the number of female prisoners has grown much faster than that of male prisoners. Since 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has surged by 57%, compared to a 22% increase in the male prison population.
We have again drawn on our international prisons research to inform an important inquiry seeking to raise standards in our prison system. ‘Rehabilitation and resettlement: ending the cycle of reoffending’ is the first Justice Committee inquiry of the current parliament.
The prisons research team at ICPR has given evidence to an important review of sentencing policy in England and Wales.
