News

Launch of Prison Insider's Prison Life Index

Prison Insider have launched a new tool to evaluate prison conditions: here, Sara Blanc Thoumine, Florence Laufer and Lola Martin Moro explain some of its key features.

What is the Prison Life Index?

Prison sentences are handed down in the name of the people, yet the reality of incarceration remains hidden from public view. Citizens have the right to understand what life in prison entails, but prison systems are often shrouded in opacity, misunderstood, and rarely scrutinized. To address this gap, Prison Insider, in collaboration with academics and civil society, has created the Prison Life Index.

ICPR's World Prison Brief data cited by leading news outlets

Journalists here and abroad have been using our prison populations data to make sense of the current crisis facing UK prisons.

New Briefing Examines Prison Work in the United States

ICPR has today published a comprehensive new briefing paper exploring the law, policy, and practice of prison work in the United States, with a particular focus on Arizona, California, and Texas.

New briefing from ICPR on prison work in the UK

The law and practice of prison work provision in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are explained in a new publication from the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research.

ICPR publishes new report on the collection of global prison data

ICPR’s latest publication Prison data collection: A Guidance Note makes the case for the systematic collection and regular publication of the most important facts and figures about prison populations.

Prison populations continue to rise in many parts of the world, with 11.5 million held in prisons worldwide

Some 11.5 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, according to the latest edition of the World Prison Population List (WPPL), researched and compiled by Helen Fair and Roy Walmsley and published on 1 May 2024 by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), at Birkbeck, University of London.

ICPR publishes Guidance Note on prison data collection in Commonwealth countries

ICPR’s latest publication Prison data collection in Commonwealth countries: A Guidance Note makes the case for the systematic collection and regular publication of the most important facts and figures about prison populations.

Rights and wrongs of prison labour laws explored in new ICPR briefing

ICPR’s new briefing paper, “Labouring Behind Bars”, explores work in prison through the lens of international human rights law. This is the first of a series of publications in the project ‘Unlocking potential: towards effective, sustainable, and ethical provision of work opportunities for prisoners and prison leavers’.

Catherine Heard addresses United Nations high level event on incarceration

I was invited to speak about female imprisonment trends at an event at the UN’s headquarters in Geneva, which took place on 2 October. This was organised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to aid implementation of the UN System’s Common Position on Incarceration (2021). Representatives from around 20 states attended as well as a similar number of civil society participants including our friends Harm Reduction International, Penal Reform International and the International Commission of Jurists.

Lecture and book launch reception, 26 January 2023: Prisons of the World by Professor Andrew Coyle

Prisons of the World author, Andrew Coyle, will present selected extracts from his recent book, along with unpublished personal photographs and reflections from decades of work as a prisons practitioner, researcher and reformer.

World Prison Brief

Institute for Criminal Policy Research

Birkbeck - University of London