When we think about and discuss the challenges faced within prison systems, thoughts often gravitate towards the physical aspects – the restrictions of freedom, the cells, the tensions between inmates. However, a deeper and darker struggle exists, one that often remains hidden from the public eye, the issue of suicide in prisons. This article will shed some light on the complex reality of suicide within prisons, revealing the pain, despair and the desperate need for change. The reasons behind suicide in prisons are complex and varied. The harsh conditions, separation from loved ones and lack of access to proper mental health resources, contribute significantly to the

We are exploring Mental Health Awareness in Prisons during Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental health has been a popular topic of discussion this month, and we want to delve in to an area that isn't often talked about - mental health awareness in prisons. Despite the fact that it is an important issue, it can be difficult to comprehend why it hasn't received more attention. In prisons, inmates are often dealing with a range of mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Prison riots have been happening around the world pretty much since the formation of prisons themselves. They are violent disturbances by inmates who are more than likely hoping to incite change by protesting against the prison system they are housed in. Prison riots can occur due to a number of reasons such as: mistreatment by prison staff, overcrowding, inappropriate access to essential items, poor living conditions, gang activity or other criminality, or other issues which impact the quality of life for prisoners. Prison riots are more often than not, extremely dangerous for inmates and prison staff, commonly resulting in serious injuries and loss of life. Historically, there have been a number of significant prison riots around the world. Here are a few examples worth noting:

In a recent article for Prison Insider, Raphael Rowe explains how his Netflix documentary series 'Inside the World's Toughest Prisons' captures the living conditions of prisoners around the world.

The youth prison population has always been something that concerns me, especially for those who have committed minor offences. Young people are some of the most vulnerable in any society, they are still learning and developing as they grow into adulthood. The notion that securing them in various secured facilities rehabilitates them, is a bizarre one, especially when you consider the vulnerabilities of young people. Young people receiving the support they need to change their lives is very important, but so is doing it the right way. With global consideration, youth prisoners are generally defined as those under the age of 18 but over the age of 10.

Heads bowed and torsos bare, their hands manacled behind their backs and chained to their shackled ankles, 2,000 men suspected of gang violence are herded into a newly built mega-prison in El Salvador.Alleged to be the biggest prison anywhere in the Americas, it has eight reinforced concrete buildings, each containing 32 'mass cells' — and a maximum capacity of 40,000 prisoners.

Inside the World's Toughest Prisons is a documentary series available on Netflix, with seasons 2-6 being hosted by RRF founder Raphael Rowe. Raphael travels the world, experiencing life behind bars in many different environments with people from all walks of life. The series is thought provoking and really inspires people to think differently about incarceration by showing a variety of prisons and their individual systems alongside the prisoners themselves. What really stands out about the series is how representative it is of every faucet of prison life, even exploring the roles of the guards and prison directors in a truly unique demonstration of reality, which needs to be seen more often in the media.

Prisons and prison life have been subject to many different depictions by the media, via various outlets. Focusing on televisions portrayal of prisons provides a good insight as this form of mass media has arguably the largest global audience. For many people across the world, prison is not something they have a personal experience with. This creates an opportunity for the media to in some way shape an individual’s perception of prisons and those incarcerated. Amongst Criminologists, this is an issue of great concern and has been a contributing factor to a lot of the research carried out under the scope of media and crime. TV allows viewers to immerse themselves in to fictitious and non-fictitious prison shows with great convenience.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of sending someone to prison? You might think of punishment or rehabilitation, perhaps the most common answers and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, the purposes of sending someone to prison are more complex and encompass many different objectives within criminal justice systems around the world. When broken down, there are four main, basic purposes of prisons:

discussing the challenges faced by women in prison, emphasising that prison systems have primarily been designed for male prisoners. It highlights the increasing rate of women being sent to prison globally and calls for a reevaluation of how women's prisons are designed and operated. The article also mentions the Bangkok Rules introduced by the United Nations to address the treatment of female prisoners, but notes that their application is lacking in many places.

Across the world there are literally thousands of prisons, with new ones being built at an alarming rate and prison populations continuing to grow in many parts of the world. The current global prison population stands at an estimated 11.5 million [Prison populations and overcrowding]. So how many prisons house these prisoners? Well, when trying to find an estimated figure of how many prisons there are across the world, there is no one answer. Instead, there is a minefield of statistics and countries lists of individual prisons. It can get pretty complicated when comparing prisons based on the number of prison facilities as there are contributing factors and many of these are relative to a country’s population and land mass. To get a sound overview of the true extent of the number of physical prisons around the world, the best approach is to select a country, state, island(s) or continent, do the research and make comparisons. Of course, this information is reliant on the disclosure of information from various countries and is fairly subjective.

Radicalisation in prisons is a global issue and is not contained to any one country and prisons can act as a vector for someone becoming radicalised. Radicalisation is when someone starts supporting or believing in views that are extreme, in some instances the radicalisation leads to participating in terrorist groups or acts of terror. Extremism can encompass a range of extreme views and beliefs but is someone who is active and vocal in their opposition of democracy, fundamental values, individual liberties, law of the land, and tolerance and respect for others 'beliefs and faiths. It is worth noting that not all radicalised and extremist individuals or groups will commit acts of terrorism or extremist motivated acts of violence. In facilities that are designed to rehabilitate people, it might be hard to understand the fact that many people get radicalised within those same walls by other extremist prisoners but it makes sense when you think of the kind of environment that many prisons create.

The issue of drug use is almost an age-old complexity, both in prison and out. In 2020/21, there were 21,931 reported instances in which drugs were found in prisons across England and Wales. Such incidents have more than doubled since 2016/17, when there were 10,666 reports. In 2019, the UK government published a ‘Prison Drugs Strategy’, outlining their plans to tackle “one of the biggest challenges facing our criminal justice system today”, the issue of drugs in UK prisons. Broken down, the ‘Prison Drugs Strategy’ approach is designed to focus on five key areas:

Running a prison in any country is very costly, but of course it costs more in some countries than in others. In a world with an ever-expanding prison population, it is key to look at the financial aspect of imprisoning people to understand where and how such money is being spent to incarcerate more and more people every year. This article will specifically look at the cost of imprisoning someone in the UK but will also draw comparison with other countries, furthermore looking at some of their offending rates as part of a cost benefit overview. However, it is important to recognise that spending on prisons in different countries is relative to a number of individual factors such as, total prison population and a countries wealth, etc.

It’s hard to fathom that in 2022 the global prison population is growing. The current global prison population stands at an estimated 11.5 million, up 24% worldwide since 2000, this figure is almost certainly an underestimation due to the lack of transparency from some countries. It is well documented that the impact of incarceration, especially in prisons which simply do not have the capacity to house these prisoners, leads to detrimental effects for both prisoners and the wider society. This article will delve in to the prison populations of Rwanda and the United Kingdom, the two countries whose governments have just made a historic refugee resettlement deal.