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Not the worst, but not Norway: US prisons vs. other models

America is known for its overcrowded prisons and harsh penitentiary conditions, but how does it rank compared to some of the other prison systems around the world? America – the Supermax: How not to treat mentally ill patients One of the most notorious jails in America is the ADX. The Administrative Maximum Facility, aka the ADX Supermax in Colorado was

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School to Prison Pipeline: The Criminalization of Black Female Students

When it comes to the school-to-prison pipeline in America, a thought-provoking book by a prominent U.S. author and justice advocate sheds startling insights into an often-overlooked segment of our broken justice system – the discrimination against black girls. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris spotlights a group that is

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What Saudi Arabia has done right in their penal system

It’s hard not to read the first paragraph of this article and not think it’s the script for a lost episode of Monty Python: “A total of 5,843 inmates in Saudi prisons, including a number sentenced to death, are preparing for the two-week midterm examination period scheduled to start next Sunday.” But beyond the bizarre

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Australian program seeks to break the recidivism cycle through education

Prisoners in the state of Victoria, Australia, will be part of new plans designed to try and meet prisoners’ educational needs immediately upon entry into the system. The $78 million (AUD) program aims to dramatically improve prisoner access to instruction from a variety of universities, colleges, and institutes across the region. Of particular note is the

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Innovative Education Can Help Fight Crime in Latin America

By Gabriel Zinny and Diego Gorgal Latin America is among the most violent regions of the world. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which each year releases its annual report on violence and the drug trade, has the bad news: with just 8 percent of the world’s population, Latin America accounts for over

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Veterans to Receive More Help in Great Britain’s Prisons

By Dianne Frazee-Walker Prisons in England and Wales are starting out the New Year with a new policy that honors veteran service personnel inmates. Upon reviewing just how the criminal justice system deals with veteran prisoners, the English government has established a new approach that recognizes and supports veteran prisoners upon entry and release and

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Protests in Georgian Prisons: Self-Mutilation and Hunger Strikes

On Friday, February 7, 2014, approximately 800 prisoners at the Geguti prison in the ex-Soviet state of Georgia staged a hunger strike over their conditions of confinement, in particular physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the prison guards and poor medical care.  Since then, the severity of the prison protests has only increased,

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Malawi: Justice for the Rich, Prison for the Poor

By Charlotte Mackenzie

In the last year or so, Malawi’s justice system has had more than its fair share of VIPs coming through its doors. In October 2012, several high-level officials linked to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were arrested in connection with the death of student activist Robert Chasowa, who was murdered in 2011 when the DPP was in office. And in light of the recent government corruption scandal – dubbed Cashgate in reference to the wads of cash found in suspects’ homes and cars – more high-ranking figures, including former justice minister Ralph Kasambara, have been taken into custody.

For once, these individuals are seeing their country’s justice system from the inside. But in Malawi, justice, like so many other things, seems to be a privilege rather than a universal right. And the experience of Malawi’s VIPs is likely to be a universe away from that of the 12,000 ordinary citizens detained in prisons across the country.

A tale of two justice systems

Robert Chasowa, a student activist and critic of the late Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika, died in September 2011. Against much outcry and suspicion, his death was originally classified as a suicide. After Mutharika passed away and Joyce Banda took over the presidency in April 2012, however, she reopened the case. A few months later, in October 2012, several figures – many members of the DPP – were arrested in connection with Chasowa’s death, now being treated as the result of murder, and transferred to Chichiri prison in Blantyre, the largest in the Southern region.

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Human Rights Supporters Celebrate Recent Prisoner Releases

(NC)—Across Canada, human rights supporters have recently been celebrating the releases of a number of prisoners of conscience—people jailed solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs. In China, poet and journalist Shi Tao was released after more than eight years in prison. Supporters of the human rights organization Amnesty International (amnesty.ca) had long campaigned

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Japan’s Philosophy: Shockingly Orderly

By Christopher Zoukis On February 23, 2013, The Economist ran a story entitled “Japan’s Prisons: Eastern Porridge.”  This article explained how well-mannered and orderly Japanese prisoners appear to outsiders, and how the age-old concepts of respect and duty still seem to apply to their modern, incarcerated class.  Since these values seem so foreign to the

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