Prison reform worldwide

Concrete laws, programmes, and pilots that have changed (or tried to change) how a country incarcerates.

• active2024–ongoing

  SDS40 emergency early-release scheme

  United Kingdom · decarceration

  Faced with England & Wales prisons running out of cells in 2024, the new Labour government legislated to release most standard-determinate-sentence prisoners after 40% (rather than 50%) of their term served. The change applies to eligible prisoners across the existing population and to new sentences.

• active2024–ongoing

  Section 479 BNSS — release of long-detained undertrials

  India · pre-trial-detention

  Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Section 479, in force from July 2024, requires release of undertrial prisoners who have served one-third of the maximum sentence for non-capital offences (one-half for first-time offenders).

• active2022–ongoing

  State of Exception and mass incarceration under Bukele

  El Salvador · sentencing

  Since March 2022 El Salvador has been under a continuous 'state of exception' that suspends key procedural rights, allowing mass arrest of suspected gang members. The prison population has tripled, making El Salvador the world's most-incarcerated country (per capita) by a wide margin. The mega-prison CECOT, opened in 2023, holds 40,000+ people in conditions widely criticised by Human Rights Watch and the UN.

• active2019–ongoing

  Expanded indigent defence funding

  United States · pre-trial-detention

  California significantly increased state funding for county public defender offices from 2019 onward, including grants tied to early-representation (within 24 hours of arrest) and bail-review advocacy.

• proposed2019

  Daiyo Kangoku (substitute detention) reform debate

  Japan · pre-trial-detention

  Japan's daiyo kangoku system allows police to hold suspects in police cells (rather than in remand prisons) for up to 23 days before charge, with limited access to defence counsel. Human-rights bodies — including the UN Human Rights Committee and CAT — have repeatedly called for abolition.

• active2018–ongoing

  First Step Act

  United States · sentencing

  Bipartisan federal legislation that reduced mandatory minimums for some drug offences, expanded earned-time credits for participation in rehabilitative programmes, and retroactively applied the Fair Sentencing Act's crack/powder cocaine disparity reduction.

• active2017–ongoing

  Drug-trafficking penalty amendments

  Iran · sentencing

  A 2017 amendment to Iran's anti-drug law raised the quantity thresholds for the mandatory death penalty for drug offences. Sentences for thousands of prisoners on death row for drug offences were reviewed.

• active2017–ongoing

  Decriminalisation of petty offences

  Kenya · decarceration

  Kenya's High Court struck down 'rogue and vagabond' offences in 2019, which had been used to detain and prosecute people for being poor, unemployed, or out at night. Reform was driven by Kituo cha Sheria and Africa Criminal Justice Reform.

• active2015–ongoing

  Audiências de Custódia (custody hearings)

  Brazil · pre-trial-detention

  From 2015, every person arrested in Brazil must be presented to a judge within 24 hours, who decides whether pre-trial detention is justified. Replaced a system where remand decisions were made on paper, often after months of incarceration.

• active2014–ongoing

  Proposition 47 — reclassifying nonviolent drug/property crimes

  United States · sentencing

  California voters approved Proposition 47 in 2014, downgrading six categories of nonviolent property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanours, with savings reinvested in mental health, drug treatment, and victim services.

• stalled2014–2019

  Closing all women's prisons (proposed)

  Sweden · decarceration

  In 2014 the Swedish Prison and Probation Service openly considered phasing out women's prisons entirely on the grounds that the population was too small and too low-risk to justify a separate carceral infrastructure.

• completed2013–2018

  Closing prisons as crime fell

  Netherlands · decarceration

  Between 2013 and 2018 the Netherlands closed roughly 20 prisons as its prison population fell from ~14,000 to under 9,000. Drivers included falling crime, expanded electronic monitoring, and community-sentence alternatives.

Editorial summaries of the most-cited prison-reform research. Every entry links to the underlying primary source.

• Global Prison Trends 20242024

  Penal Reform International · global

  PRI's flagship annual report on the state of the world's prisons. Documents continued global prison-population growth (~11.5 million worldwide), severe overcrowding affecting more than 60% of national systems, and the criminalisation of poverty as a major driver. Spotlights the disproportionate incarceration of women, the persistence of pre-trial detention without trial, and the rise of mass life-without-parole sentences as an alternative to the death penalty in retentionist states.

• Incarceration Trends2024

  Vera Institute of Justice · United States

  An interactive county-level dataset of US jail and prison incarceration from 1970 to present. Reveals that the post-2000 growth in incarceration has shifted from large urban centres to small and rural counties, and that pre-trial jail populations remain the fastest-growing segment.

• Death Sentences and Executions 20242024

  Amnesty International · global

  Amnesty's annual census of recorded executions and death sentences worldwide. 2024 was the deadliest year on record in decades, driven primarily by Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, with drug-related offences accounting for a large share. China remains the world's biggest executioner but figures remain a state secret.

• Global State of Harm Reduction 20242024

  Harm Reduction International · global

  Biennial assessment of harm-reduction coverage worldwide. Documents the criminalisation of drug use as a major driver of prison overcrowding and disease transmission, with HIV / hepatitis-C prevalence in many prisons running 5-10x community rates.

• Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 20242024

  Prison Policy Initiative · United States

  PPI's annual single-snapshot analysis of the US carceral system: 1.9 million people behind bars across federal prisons, state prisons, local jails, immigration detention, juvenile facilities, and military / territorial prisons. Counters the common claim that 'most prisoners are non-violent drug offenders' by breaking down offense categories, and exposes the churn of pre-trial detention in local jails.

• Report on the 2023 Periodic Visit to France2024

  European Committee for the Prevention of Torture · France

  CPT's seven-prison inspection of France documents severe overcrowding (some facilities at 200%+ of capacity), inadequate access to outdoor exercise, and serious shortcomings in mental-health care. France's prison occupancy hit a record 78,082 detainees in 2024 against a capacity of ~60,400.

Major NGOs, research institutes, and oversight bodies — global and national.

• Amnesty International

  global

  Global human-rights movement campaigning against torture, the death penalty, and unjust imprisonment.

  death penalty abolitiontorture preventionprisoners of conscience

• Association for the Prevention of Torture

  global

  Geneva-based NGO working to prevent torture worldwide through monitoring, law reform, and training.

  torture preventionmonitoring

• European Committee for the Prevention of Torture

  regional

  Council of Europe body that visits and reports on detention facilities across 46 European states.

  torture preventionconditionsmonitoring

• Fair and Just Prosecution

  national

  US network of elected reform-minded prosecutors working on systemic criminal justice change.

  sentencingdecarcerationprosecutorial reform

• Fair Trials

  global

  International NGO working for fair and effective criminal justice systems.

  pre trial detentiondefence rightsjuvenile justice

• Harm Reduction International

  global

  Research and advocacy organisation focused on drug policy, harm reduction, and the death penalty for drug offences.

  alternativesdrug policydeath penalty abolition

• Howard League for Penal Reform

  national

  England & Wales charity working for less crime, safer communities, and fewer people in prison.

  alternativesjuvenile justicewomen prisoners

• Human Rights Watch

  global

  International NGO investigating abuses worldwide, with extensive prison-conditions and detention reporting.

  conditionstorture preventiondeath penalty abolition

• Innocence Project

  national

  US non-profit working to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reform criminal justice policy.

  wrongful convictionsentencing

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