Europe In 2020, PRI (re)launched its Europe Programme. Over the past 30 years Penal Reform International has been present in European countries in various ways. PRI is registered in The Netherlands and formerly had a secondary head office in Paris. After their independence in the early 1990s, PRI developed country programmes in Hungary, with an office […] Central Asia While there have been improvements in recent years, criminal justice policy in Central Asia remains punitive. Some Central Asian countries have taken steps in recent years to reduce their prison populations and in the case of Kazakhstan has actually closed prisons, however, conditions in prisons remain poor and carry echoes of the Gulag regime left […] Middle East and North Africa Although efforts are being made across North Africa and the Middle East to ensure criminal justice systems reflect international standards and comply with human rights law, there are some significant challenges for reform. These include prison overcrowding, delays in the trial process, poor coordination between criminal justice agencies, lack of resources and, in some countries […] Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Closure of the Moscow office of PRI At PRI’s Executive Board meeting on 25 January 2018, the future of the Moscow office was reviewed. Following this, the Executive Board reluctantly took the view that in the current financial climate, the organisation cannot continue its financial support for the Moscow office. This decision was not made lightly. The […] South Asia Criminal justice and penal reform in the South Asia region faces a number of challenges. Problems include: prison overcrowding, lack of alternatives to imprisonment, little training for criminal justice officials and lack of specialised systems and measures for vulnerable groups, including women and child detainees. PRI worked in South Asia from the mid-1990s until 2016. […] South Caucasus Despite many positive reforms and success in moving away from the punitive penal policies of the Soviet era, criminal justice systems in the South Caucasus face a number of challenges. Corruption is a persistent problem, particularly in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trained pre-independence, members of the judiciary lack full independence and expertise, often resulting in the […] Sub-Saharan Africa Conditions in African prisons are some of the poorest in the world. High rates of pre-trial detention and the overuse of prison sentences for minor offences contribute to severe overcrowding, with many prisons holding up to twice their official capacity. Prisons lack sanitation and access to proper medical care, and provide few rehabilitative programmes, educational […]