What's new at the World Prison Brief
Welcome to the News section of the World Prison Brief, where the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research delivers timely updates on urgent prison-related developments around the globe. From data-driven insights into prison labour and sentencing reforms to global prison population trends and gender disparities, this page brings you the latest briefings, evidence submissions, and expert commentary shaping policy and public debate
On 23 March 2026, at the margin of the 61st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, ICPR and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights held a side event on the topic of Human Rights Compliant Alternative Measures to Pre-Trial Detention.
The prisons research team at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at…
Catherine Heard directs the World Prison Research Programme, at Birkbeck’s Institute for Crime &…
The Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck, University of London has…
Professor Mike Hough, Emeritus Professor and Founder of Birkbeck’s Institute for Crime &…
We are compiling a list of news articles, guidance and other resources from around the world on…
Event details Date: 4 December 2020: 18.25 – 19.45 (GMT)Book your place nowEvent: Online panel…
An article by Catherine Heard on the impacts of COVID-19 on prison populations and wider justice…
In this searing documentary film, former prisoners, prison guard whistle-blowers and an…
