When: 04 November 2025, 18:00 — 20:00
Venue: TBC
The Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research invites you to an event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Prison Brief website. Since its launch in September 2000, the World Prison Brief has become a trusted and highly valued resource, relied on by policy makers, journalists, researchers, NGOs and activists across the world. It provides open access to the best available data on prison populations worldwide, now covering almost every country in the world.
The UN bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the World Health Organisation are among the many international agencies who find the Brief an indispensable tool. The data are used as indicators of human development. They are also used to galvanize domestic penal reform: Barack Obama, reflecting on America’s need to address mass incarceration, cited the data in an article for the Harvard Law Review.
With generous support from the Blanes Trust (and other private donations), the World Prison Brief site is undergoing redevelopment to improve its design and functionality. The event will be an opportunity for ICPR to demonstrate the capabilities of the new site.
Birkbeck’s new President, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE, PC, will speak at the event. A Member of the House of Lords since 2016, Baroness Chakrabarti is a labour peer, human rights lawyer, campaigner, and privy counsellor.