Peer relations: Review of learning from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Prison Reform Fellowships – Part IV

This report looks at the importance of positive peer relations at all stages of the criminal justice process, specifically: • Peer relations as a tool to support desistance and diversion • Promoting positive peer relations in prison • Peer support on release from priso

Pre-trial detention and its over-use: evidence from ten countries

This new report looks at pre-trial detention in ten jurisdictions: Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, the USA, India, Thailand, England & Wales, Hungary, the Netherlands and Australia. All but one of these (the Netherlands) currently run their prison systems over-capacity. The research included analysis of national legal systems followed by interviews with 60 experienced criminal defence lawyers across the ten countries

Migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity care in European countries: A systematic review

Background: Across Europe there are increasing numbers of migrant women who are of childbearing age. Migrant women are at risk of poorer pregnancy outcomes. Models of maternity care need to be designed to meet the needs of all women in society to ensure equitable access to services and to address health inequalities. Objective: To provide up-to-date systematic evidence on migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity care in their destination European country. Search strategy: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2017. Selection criteria: Qualitative and mixed-methods studies with a relevant qualitative component were considered for inclusion if they explored any aspect of migrant women's experiences of maternity care in Europe. Data collection and analysis: Qualitative data were extracted and analysed using thematic synthesis. Results: The search identified 7472 articles, of which 51 were eligible and included. Studies were conducted in 14 European countries and focused on women described as migrants, refugees or asylum seekers. Four overarching themes emerged: ‘Finding the way—the experience of navigating the system in a new place’, ‘We don't understand each other’, ‘The way you treat me matters’, and ‘My needs go beyond being pregnant’. Conclusions: Migrant women need culturally-competent healthcare providers who provide equitable, high quality and trauma-informed maternity care, undergirded by interdisciplinary and cross-agency team-working and continuity of care. New models of maternity care are needed which go beyond clinical care and address migrant women's unique socioeconomic and psychosocial needs

Connections: a review of learning from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowships

From 2010-2015, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust funded Travelling Fellowships with a particular focus on prison reform across the world. This brief overview highlights some of the learning from the Fellowships

Prison data collection in Commonwealth countries: a guidance note

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. It recommends the routine and regular publication of Core Data on: • the number and categories of people imprisoned on any one day – for example female prisoners, juveniles and those held in pre-trial/remand detention • the numbers received into and released from prison over particular periods of time • the maximum capacity of the prison system and how this is measured to enable the calculation of occupancy levels and address the risk of overcrowding. Our Guidance Note also proposes that Additional Data should be made available where possible so as to ensure the greatest possible transparency. This includes more detailed information about the status and characteristics of prisoners, their treatment and conditions of detention, and about numbers of prison staff. The process for getting access to this data should be clear to all interested stakeholders, and straightforward to implement. Collecting and publishing statistics about the use and practice of imprisonment is a crucial tool for governments to assess the effectiveness of criminal justice policies. Accurate and updated statistics also help to ensure there is sufficient capacity in the prison estate; and enable civil society to monitor overcrowding and associated human rights violations and public health risks in prisons and to generate evidenced proposals for reform

Keeping COVID out of prisons: approaches in ten countries

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on 11 March 2020, there was immediate concern about the potential health impacts on prisoners and prison staff. Concern focused on the close proximity in which prisoners live, particularly in overcrowded systems; the prevalence of underlying health conditions which affect many of those in custody; and the porous nature of prison walls and boundaries, presenting a risk of infection spreading from prisons to local communities. In the wake of the declaration of the pandemic, penal reformers and human rights organizations around the world called for measures to be taken to reduce the numbers of people in prison, particularly in overcrowded systems, and to contain the risks of infection spreading. This report examines the population management and infection control measures (excluding direct health interventions) taken by prison systems in a diverse group of ten countries spanning all five continents: Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, the USA (and more specifically, New York State), India, Thailand, England and Wales, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Australia (more specifically, New South Wales). The report is produced under the banner of ICPR’s international, comparative project, ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in ten countries’, launched in 2017

World Prison Population List (14th edition)

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. According to published prison population numbers, the total worldwide prison population stands at 10.99 million. However, the total is likely to be in excess of 11.5 million if numbers estimated to be held in detention centres in China and in prisons camps in North Korea are included