Mortality rates are up to 50% higher for people in prison than for people in the wider community. People die in prison as a result of a wide range of causes including torture and other forms of violence, selfharm, and environmental factors like overcrowding, poor conditions of detention and inadequate access to healthcare. This raises serious concerns for the protection of human rights, public health, and prison management.
States bear a heightened responsibility for people in prison because when they deprive someone of their liberty, they assume a duty of care, in particular to protect the right to life and other human rights. As part of this, there is an obligation not only to report and investigate deaths in custody, as well as disappearances and serious injuries, but also to prevent violence and ill-treatment in prisons and ensure that conditions of detention meet international human rights standards, such as providing healthcare equivalent to that available in the community.
This briefing is a call to action for the international community and national actors to strengthen their approach to deaths in prisons, to take pro-active measures to prevent loss of life and, when deaths do occur, to respond appropriately and conduct robust investigations in line with international human rights standards to identify any systemic concerns and prevent future harm. Based on research conducted by PRI and the prisonDEATH team, it examines the key challenges in definitions and data on deaths in prisons, the leading causes of death across regions, and what happens in practice to prevent, manage, and investigate deaths in prison. Aimed to inspire action, it includes some recommendations to guide human rights-based responses to deaths in prison.
Download "Deaths in prison" report
Posted on Tuesday 10th January 2023