Welcome to Penal Reform International's monthly e-newsletter, a round-up of PRI and other penal reform news from around the world and a variety of criminal justice and human rights resources.
The views expressed in the news items below are not necessarily those of PRI.
At the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) in New York on 19-21 April, the world’s governments agreed an outcome document, negotiated previously at the preceding Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which should pave the way for a future review in three years’ time when a regular session of the General Assembly on drugs will take place.
While the outcome document reaffirms the existing punitive approach to drugs (focused on seizures, prosecution and prohibition), many of those present – including several Member States – agreed that the current approach was not working, and the document includes support for harm reduction and for proportionate sentencing for drug offences.
During the UNGASS, PRI hosted a side-event together with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on ‘The Human rights impacts of drug policies’ and spoke in UNGASS sessions highlighting various issues, including the importance of proportionate sentencing for drug-related offences and the disproportionately negative impact of drug policies on women. A blog post from PRI’s Oliver Robertson about the adoption of the outcome document is available here.
On 7-8 April, Penal Reform International organized, together with the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, a meeting of experts to review the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules). The experts identified legal, policy and operational questions that may arise for prison administrations in interpreting and applying the revised Rules. The results of the meeting will feed into an ‘Essex III’ paper addressing these issues. Read more about the Essex expert group and this meeting here.
This blog summaries a PRI roundtable discussion in Kampala, Uganda, with the Uganda Prison Service on the implementation of the Mandela Rules. The day-long event explored the changes to the rules, how they can be put into practice, and some of the challenges in the Ugandan and wider African contexts.
See PRI’s resources on the Nelson Mandela Rules.
From 23-27 May, PRI will be attending the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna. We will be launching Global Prison Trends 2016, the second edition in our Global Prison Trends series, and hosting a number of side-events on priority issues. These include good practices for women offenders, the implementation of the Mandela Rules, alternatives to imprisonment, life imprisonment and a review of international drug policy following the April 2016 UNGASS.
Women who kill in response to domestic violence: How do criminal justice systems respond?
Later this month, we will publish a study that surveys nine jurisdictions to consider how legislation and the courts take into account a history of domestic violence in cases where women have killed their abusers. The research was conducted for PRI by Linklaters LLP, brokered by Advocates for International Development (A4ID).
In the US, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has partnered with University of Cincinnati to develop a set of gender-responsive risk and needs assessment tools to use with women offenders, known as the Women's Risk Need Assessment (WRNA).
This blog for PRI by Breanna Boppre and Emily Salisbury of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, summarises the process behind the WRNA’s creation and argues its effectiveness in classifying women offenders for supervision levels and treatment programmes.
PRI submitted a statement to the UN CRC to inform its forthcoming General Comment on Children in Street Situations. The submission identifies the issues affecting children in street situations who come into conflict with the law, and offers recommendations regarding the provision of support.
The Ugandan Government and UNICEF have produced a handbook on juvenile justice for actors in the criminal justice system. It offers guidance on strengthening child protection structures, as well as handling child related cases in an age- and gender-sensitive manner.
PRI Board Member and member of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Justice Imman Ali, outlines the problems facing women prisoners and children in Bangladeshi prisons and calls for the best interests of the child to be prioritised.
Human Rights Watch has published a report that documents the lack of adequate mental health care and appropriate conditions for prisoners with psychosocial disabilities in French prisons.
A virtual experience of solitary confinement
The UK Guardian newspaper has produced a virtual reality experience of a US solitary confinement prison cell. It allows the user to tour the cell whilst hearing stories of those who have been placed in solitary confinement.
PRIs Central Asia Office is currently implementing a 3 year project that aims to end the use of solitary confinement for children in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Read here a mid-term evaluation of the project that tracks our progress in achieving this goal.
The European Court of Human Rights issues two judgments
The Court also ruled that Cyprus must pay damages to a man for his ill-treatment by prison guards and other inmates whilst in detention and the lack of medical care for the injuries he sustained.
PRI has produced a guide to assist countries to reform their legislation, policy and practice in relation to pre-trial justice. This plan draws on a recent survey of the use of bail in a wide range of jurisdictions conducted for PRI by Advocates for International Development (A4ID).
The Kenyan National Coordinator for Community Service has announced plans for the release of minor offenders in efforts to relieve overcrowding in prisons. Following sentence reviews, those who do not qualify will be put on probation.
PRI is currently implementing the Excellence in Training on Rehabilitation in Africa (EXTRA) project in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which aims to enhance the capacity of probation services, increase the usage of non-custodial sentences and decongest prisons. Read the mid-term evaluation of this project here.
A report by Kyrgyzstan’s National Torture Prevention Center documents the commonplace practice of torture in police stations and penal facilities. The report draws on interviews with over 1,000 people who have spent time in either pre-trial detention facilities or prison.
Particular attention was paid in to poor conditions in juvenile detention facilities, with children reporting not being told why they were arrested, physical and verbal abuse by staff, and failure to separate children from adult detainees
PRI worked in partnership with the Kyrgyzstan National Torture Prevention Center on two recent ‘Voice of the Child’ surveys documenting the experiences of children held in closed institutions in the country. For more information, read the 2014 survey report, published in September last year.
The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) has produced a report that evaluates their recently ended project to strengthen the role and capacity of African human rights institutions to prevent torture.
Amnesty International has published its annual report examining the judicial use of the death penalty across the world in 2015. It reports the highest usage of the death penalty in 25 years, with nine in ten executions happening in just Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
