How does an inmate experience technology in prison? What are the areas for improvement? Do you have inspiring ideas or know-hows that would stir the audience to learn more about how technology is being used in prisons across Europe? Join us as a presenter at the next ICT workshop on 'The Inmate’s Digital Journey – Current and Future Solutions'. Apply by filling out a form on the event page, latest by 31 January 2022. The workshop is planned to take place on 5-6 April 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Working in the Probation Department of the largest women’s prison in Europe, HMP Holloway in the late 1980s, first introduced me to the issues facing foreign nationals in the criminal justice system and the challenges to prison and probation services. Leaving prison to establish a specialist probation unit working with foreign nationals that got arrested at Heathrow Airport, I then went on to work with offenders with a wide range of nationalities and immigration status’s probation & prison staff in London increasingly faced in their mainstream, day-to-day work.

On 11 November, we had the pleasure of meeting participants from 16 countries in Leiden, Netherlands for the Children of Prisoners Workshop. The first presentations were given by the EuroPris children of prisoners expert group members on how their jurisdictions have been implementing the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)5 on Children of imprisoned parents. Next to this, tool and implementation methods were presented by Italian, German and Scottish experts in the field. Lastly, Catalonia and Cyprus shared their innovative work in the area of Children of Prisoners during the Covid crisis. All the presentations are available on the website, click below. A follow-up webinar will be organized in April 2022.

Penal Reform International and Harm Reduction International are launching of the first ever in-depth review of policies and practices related to COVID-19 vaccination in prisons across 177 countries. At this online launch of ‘COVID-19 vaccination for prison populations and staff: report on global scan’, key international and national actors and human rights leaders will discuss the findings of the report and ways forward to ensure the prioritisation of people detained and working in prisons for COVID-19 vaccination and broader pandemic responses. The webinar will take place on Tuesday 14 December at 14.00 CET.

Global Prison Trends 2021 is the seventh edition of Penal Reform International’s annual flagship report published with the Thailand Institute of Justice, identifying the key trends and challenges in prison systems worldwide. Global Prison Trends 2021 exposes the impact of the global pandemic on prison populations and staff, showing that in the face of the COVID-19 crisis millions of people in prison have suffered as a result of preventive measures, at a huge cost to their mental health and human rights.