Celebrating 25 Years of the World Prison Brief

The event marked 25 years of the World Prison Brief, a pioneering resource providing free, open access to reliable and comparable data on 224 prison systems in the world. 

It was chaired by Catherine Heard, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the World Prison Research Programme at ICPR, who in her introductory remarks emphasised how central the database is to ICPR's work on prisons and the use of imprisonment: 

"The World Prison Brief is the cornerstone of all our prisons research because it combines reliability, accessibility and global comparability all in one place. The Brief is more than just a database; it is a tool for transparency, comparison and advocacy, strengthening efforts to shift criminal justice policy towards reduced use of imprisonment, fairer legal processes, and more humane prison conditions."

Catherine Heard, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the World Prison Research Programme

Rebuild and redesign of the website

The event marked the launch of a newly rebuilt and redesigned World Prison Brief, made possible through anonymous donations from individuals and a generous grant from The Blanes Trust. 

In her opening remarks, Professor Sally Wheeler OBE, Vice-Chancellor, Birkbeck, University of London, thanked donors for their support, which came at a critical moment when the database required a full rebuild. The funding enabled not only the technical rebuild, but also a wider redesign of the website to improve accessibility and usability. 

We were joined at the event by Kate Mackenzie Davey, a Trustee of The Blanes Trust, who explained that the Trust’s decision to support the World Prison Brief was rooted in its commitment to supporting marginalised and stigmatised groups, and in a shared belief in widening access to knowledge, not just for academics, but also for the press and for the public, something that is fundamental to the World Prison Brief:

"...the more we heard about the collection of information for the World Prison Brief, the more we recognised both the importance and also, as has been mentioned, the difficulty of providing a source of robust data to counter misinformation in an area which is contested and often controversial. When we heard about the specific project to update the database, we could see the ways in which Blanes could actually contribute to making this priceless information even more widely accessible."

Kate Mackenzie Davey, Trustee of The Blanes Trust

The redesigned World Prison Brief features an entirely new, more user-friendly layout, along with new functionality that makes it easier to explore and compare prisons data across jurisdictions. Regions and countries are now colour-coded to make the site easier to navigate, and interactive maps allow users to move more easily between regional and country pages.

One of the main new features is a ‘Data Analysis Tool’ which allows users to select countries across different regions and compare them directly using any of the available metrics: prison population totals and rates, pre-trial/remand imprisonment, female imprisonment, foreign prisoners and occupancy levels. The tool gives the option to display the data as tables or charts, making cross-country comparisons much quicker and easier.

Zinat Jimada, Research Fellow at ICPR, gave a virtual demonstration of the new website and showcased the updated design, interface and enhanced functionality:

The redesign and rebuild were done in collaboration with The Gallery Partnership and Two-Fifths Design.

A vital tool for research, policy and advocacy

Over the past 25 years, the World Prison Brief has become a leading global reference point for researchers, policy makers, practitioners and the media, supporting more informed, evidence-based discussion about the use of imprisonment. The data enables journalists to report accurately and supports NGOs and advocates in making the case for decarceration and stronger human rights safeguards.

At the event, we heard from practitioners who regularly rely on the World Prison Brief in their work, including Zaved Mahmood, who leads work on detention and incarceration at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit think tank carrying out research and advocacy on over-criminalization and mass incarceration in the USA.

Zaved highlighted the central role of data in human rights work on incarceration, as reflected in the UN Common Position on Incarceration:   

"The UN Common Position on Incarceration specifically emphasised the critical importance of robust data for strengthening programming and research capacity. In this regard, the World Prison Brief has proven an extremely useful resource, especially considering the current lack of a unified global information hub on prison systems."

Zaved Mahmood, Lead, Detention / Incarceration, Rule of Law & Democracy Section, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Peter Wagner spoke about how the World Prison Brief enables meaningful comparisons across jurisdictions, and how its credibility makes those comparisons harder for policymakers to dismiss. Reflecting on the Brief’s contribution to Prison Policy Initiative’s work in the USA, he noted: 

“By being able to make these international comparisons, we’re able to show even states that think they’re doing well that they’re entirely out of step with the rest of the world… and we’re able to get the powers that be to engage in that debate because we can point to the World Prison Brief… it’s the largest, most comprehensive, and most respected source.”

Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative

25 Years of the World Prison Brief

The event also paid tribute to those who helped shape and sustain the World Prison Brief over the past 25 years, including Roy Walmsley, the founder of the World Prison Brief and Helen Fair, Senior Research Fellow at ICPR, who now leads the research and oversees the sourcing, verification and regular updating of the World Prison Brief.  

Professor Andrew Coyle CMG, who as director of the International Centre for Prison Studies (which later merged with ICPR) played a key role in securing the institutional support needed to establish the World Prison Brief, reflected on its development over the past 25 years, noting how its reach and impact have far exceeded what could have been imagined at the time of its launch. 

As the World Prison Brief enters its second quarter-century, its core purpose remains unchanged: to provide a clear, comparative picture of how imprisonment is used across the world. In doing so, it will continue to inform discussions about how states exercise their power to punish. 

Read more about the development and impact of the World Prison Brief over the years in our anniversary blog here.

Watch a full recording of the 25th anniversary event here.