Welcome to Penal Reform International's monthly e-newsletter, a round-up of PRI and other penal reform news from a variety of criminal justice and human rights resources around the world.
The views expressed in the news items below are not necessarily those of PRI.
PRI will be co-organising the 2018 World Congress on Justice For Children in May 2018, which will focus on the issues of children's involvement in violent extremism, the need for more effective ways to reduce juvenile offending, and the question of how to improve protection mechanisms for vulnerable children. The event plans to have over 100 speakers, 26 workshops and 600 participants, involving professionals and stakeholders from around the world in discussing issues related to the best interests of the child in the contexts of youth and family justice and the prevention of offending and violent extremism.
There is a call for proposals to organise a workshop or contribute a paper to a workshop; workshops will take place on Tuesday 29 May 2018. Those who wish to submit a proposal to the Congress organisers can find more information, guidance notes and an application form here. Completed applications must be received no later than Friday 26 January 2018.
To register for the Congress, please click here. There is a reduced fee for those who register before 31 January 2018.
Today marks 2 yrs since the UN unanimously adopted the Nelson Mandela Rules. A reminder that we must uphold the dignity of every single person - whether free or behind bars. My @theage piece: https://t.co/5VKiOLmeQO 17 December 2017
On 4–5 December, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights organised a workshop, in partnership with PRI, on the importance of independent state monitoring bodies in assessing whether state measures to prevent and counter violent extremism and radicalisation that lead to terrorism (VERLT) in prisons are human-rights compliant.
The event featured 27 practitioners from a range of professional backgrounds, including representatives of international and regional organisations, NGOs, penitentiary institutions, detention monitoring bodies, and independent experts.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released its Roadmap for the development of prison-based rehabilitation regimes. The Roadmap emphasises investing in education, training and work programmes for prisoners, which in turn help prisoners stay away from crime when they leave prison; support order, safety and security in prison facilities; and assist in realising the principle of 'normalisation', as well as improving conditions within the prison.
Importantly, the Roadmap also includes evidence from empirical studies showing the effectiveness of such programmes.
The Ugandan government is in the final stages of increasing pay for prisoners who provide labour on both private and government projects, a senior Ugandan Prisons Service officer has reported. Presently, 'skilled labour' provided by prisoners is compensated at 500 Ugandan shillings per day, but these proposals would revise remuneration up to 1,000 Ugandan shillings per day.
Rule 103 of the Nelson Mandela Rules requires that there be 'a system of equitable remuneration of the work of prisoners'.
Speaking on the news, Doreen Kyazze, Regional Director of PRI's regional office in Sub-Saharan Africa, commented that 'this is another way of contributing to re-offending to support life after prison. The review will bring in tandem with the prevailing economic changes of life'. She further added that the pay rise is supplementary to the skills attained by prisoners.
Two years since adoption of Nelson Mandela Rules
17 December 2017 marked two years since the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Nelson Mandela Rules. Marking the event, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution promoting the practical application of the Rules, encouraging states to 'endeavour to improve conditions of imprisonment' and take effective measures to address overcrowding.
On 6–7 December, PRI attended a workshop on mental health in prison and probation, jointly organised by the Confederation of European Probation and Europris. The workshop brought together speakers from medical and academic backgrounds, as well as practitioners, and tackled questions on how to move forward on the issue around Europe. A full list of presentations can be found here.
UK charity Prison Reform Trust published a new report on 4 December 2017 identifying strong links between women's experience of domestic and sexual abuse and coercive relationships, and their offending. The report is also accompanied by a briefing from the Criminal Bar Association on the defences available for women defendants who are survivors of domestic abuse.
Statistics released in response to a parliamentary question in the UK have shown that one in four women jailed in 2016 were imprisoned for under one month, with almost 300 women put behind bars for under two weeks. In addition, 55 per cent of women were sentenced to less than three months, compared to the overall figure of 36 per cent when taking into account both male and female prisoners.
Kate Paradine, the Chief Executive of Women in Prison, commented that 'Because women are often primary carers, when a mother is sent to prison, in nine out of 10 cases her children will have to leave their home to go into the care system or to live with relatives'.
In a piece for The Marshall Project, in collaboration with Vice, an anonymous author writes about his experiences being tried and sentenced as an adult for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old. After being moved around juvenile detention facilities, he was transferred to an adult federal prison soon after his 18th birthday.
The aim of the meeting was to share information on drugs and drug-related harms in prison and to highlight good practices. Alison gave a presentation on alternative approaches to reducing the spread of drug-related diseases in prison. Picture from Nasrul Ismail
The statement notes than more than 12,000 people have been killed in the Philippines in the last 16 months in connection with the war on drugs, and calls for people who use drugs to not be treated as criminals. The statement concludes with recommendations that governments should decriminalise drug use and sex work, and alternatively take a public health and harm reduction approach to drug use.
Last month, 133 out of 175 seats in the Norwegian parliament voted to decriminalise drugs, and offer treatment to addicts instead. The decision followed findings from Norway's 2017 Country Drug Report that 266 people died from drug-related deaths. The vote means that, instead of being treated as criminals, drug addicts will be regarded as requiring treatment for an illness.
On 14 December 2017, the Supreme Court of Kenya declared that the mandatory death sentence is unconstitutional. This means that, while the death penalty is still lawful in Kenya, there will no longer be any automatic sentence to death, and a death sentence will only ever be at judges' discretion.
Amnesty International has written that this landmark judgment must nonetheless lead to a full abolition of cruel punishment. Similarly, Parvais Jabbar, Co-Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project, said that 'we hope it will also pave the way for further reform of the death penalty within Kenya and the Africa region more widely.'
The Association for the Prevention of Torture has produced a video in partnership with the Anti-Torture Initiative emphasising the importance of moving towards non-coercive interviewing of suspects during the first hours of police custody, with adequate procedural safeguards. Click here to watch.
In a recent report for Transform Justice, Rob Allen analyses the use of diversion in the UK justice system. He notes its declining use while acknowledging the benefits of diversion as offering a quicker, simpler and more appropriate response than prosecution in many cases, often being more effective than a court appearance at 'reducing reoffending and repairing the harm that has been done'.
