Irish Penal Reform Trust

International News

UK: Improving Services for Young People - an economic perspective

29th March 2011

A new report published today in the UK highlights the economic benefits of providing young people aged 16-25 with sufficient supports so that they can improve their lives.

UK: Sentencing Council - Drug Offences Guideline Public Consultation

28th March 2011

The Sentencing Council in the UK have launched a three month public consultation on sentencing for drug offences. In their draft guideline, they focus on the various factors that need to be considered when sentencing drug offenders.

NI: Review of the Northern Ireland Prison Service - interim report published

28th February 2011

Northern Ireland Justice Minister, David Ford, today published the interim report by the Prison Review Team led by Dame Anne Owers.

US report: The State of Sentencing 2010

25th February 2011

A new report published by The Sentencing Project in the US highlights how many states have enacted new sentencing measures so to manage prison populations.

(Glasgow) Prevention and intervention programmes see 'significant fall' in violent youth crime

3rd February 2011

The significant fall in the number of serious violent crimes committed by young people in Glasgow is being attributed to a range of prevention and intervention programmes.

Drop in Wisconsin's Prison Population

13th January 2011

Wisconsin's prison population dropped significantly in 2010, reversing a trend of ballooning incarceration that had been predicted to continue for years.

US: Children on the Outside

12th January 2011

Children on the Outside: Voicing the Pain and Human Costs of Parental Incarceration is a new report from Justice Strategies detailing the impacts of parental imprisonment on children.

UK: Children and Young People in Custody 2009-10

18th November 2010

HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Youth Justice Board have published a new report detailing the experiences of children and young people in prison custody.

Canadian's Doubling Up Prison Cells

10th November 2010

Canada is in the process of increasing their prison expenditure 2.1 billion dollars by 2014 a large amount of which has been allocated to prison expansion to deal with what is becoming a serious problem of overcrowding within the state. A repercussion of this growing prison population and overcrowding is the use of double bunking within the institution.

Economic Climate's Positive Effect on U.S. Prison Policy

5th November 2010

From the 1980s America has seen an explosion in prison numbers, becoming the world leader in regards the rate of incarceration. Every year since 1985 has seen a rise in the levels of people behind bars. A natural corollary of this has been massive growth in the cost of corrections to the state, up 674% in that time period. However, recent information provided by The Vera Institute of Justice in their report The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections: Setting a New Course has shown that these incredible and unprecedented increases may finally be coming to a halt. The catalyst for such being the onset of the worst economic downturn in America since the great depression.

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