World Prison Brief receives new funding boost to improve data analysis on global prison reforms
Rapidly rising prisoner numbers and a lack of resources to cope with them means many prison systems worldwide are overcrowded and at crisis point.
Since 2016, the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR) - based at Birkbeck’s School of Social Sciences– has raised awareness of rising prisoner numbers through its World Prison Research Programme. By collaborating with research partners, civil society organisations and policy makers worldwide, the programme promotes policy reform to create alternatives to rising prison populations.
Now, thanks to philanthropic support from the Blanes Trust, the programme has received a £21,500 boost to overhaul its prison population database The World Prison Brief.
Launched in 2000, the database provides the most accurate information available about prison systems for almost every country in the world, including total prison populations, numbers in pre-trial detention, the proportion of women, juveniles and foreign nationals, and prison occupancy levels. The database also allows for comparisons of prison populations rates by country and region.
The data is used by monitoring bodies, governments, journalists, civil society organisations, economists, academics and social researchers to make evidence-based decisions on this vital aspect of justice policy.
UN bodies, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation, are among many international agencies who cite the World Prison Brief as an indispensable tool, using the data to galvanize domestic penal reform. Barack Obama, when reflecting on America’s need to address mass incarceration in 2015, cited World Prison Brief data in an article for the Harvard Law Review.
Helen Fair, Research Fellow and World Prison Brief Researcher, said there were 2.8 million visits to the database by almost half a million users from 228 countries and territories in 2024.
She said: “The collection and publication of statistics about the use and practice of imprisonment are essential if governments are to assess the effectiveness of criminal justice policies and to protect the fundamental human rights of those in prison. We are delighted that the funding from the Blanes Trust will enable us to continue and improve on our collection and presentation of these vital data.”
The funding from the Blanes Trust will allow the database to be redesigned to improve accessibility, comparison functionality and visualisation. These updates come as the World Prison Brief celebrates its 25th anniversary in September 2025.
Catherine Heard, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the World Prison Research Programme, said improving accessibility will mean users can analyse the data quicker and easier.
She said: “The World Prison Brief is the foundation of all our prisons research, inspiring and informing our choices about the themes and topics we research and which countries and regions we focus on.
“In the course of my time directing the World Prison Research Programme, there have been huge advances in web design and content management software, opening more possibilities in terms of visualisation, and making comparison functions more accessible to users.
“The generous support of the Blanes Trust means we can now capitalise on these advances, rebuilding and redesigning the site so it’s even more useful to researchers, journalists and others investigating prisons and the use of imprisonment around the world.”
Zinat Jimada, Research Fellow at Birkbeck, used the database extensively for international comparative research both before and since joining the ICPR in February, over time developing an interest in data transparency.
She said: “I’ll be exploring this theme and advocating for improved data collection and transparency practices at a conference on punishment in the global peripheries in Cape Town later this year. I’m especially looking forward to showcasing the new and improved website, made possible thanks to the Blanes Trust, as part of my presentation.”
The Blanes Trust are long-term supporters of Birkbeck, seed funding The Compass Project when it launched in 2016. Since then, the programme has supported 124 asylum seekers to access a degree programme at Birkbeck and hundreds more through targeted outreach in local communities.
The Trustees of the Blanes Trust said: “Blanes Trust is very happy to build on its previous relationship with Birkbeck through the Compass Project by supporting the University in updating the website for the World Prison Brief. Updating this website will both ensure this important information is widely publicly available and allow users to interrogate relations within the data more rigorously, freeing researchers to focus on specific, complex questions.”