Children living in prison with a primary caregiver: a global mapping of age restrictions and duration of stay.

Women represent a growing proportion of the global prison population of 11·5 million people. No reliable estimates exist of the number of pregnant women or number of children born in or living in prison with a primary caregiver. Permitting a child to stay in prison with a primary caregiver for any duration has advantages and disadvantages for both the caregiver and the child. Global consensus on the age at which child confinement inhibits healthy development has not been reached. Human rights violations worldwide illustrate the failures of prison systems to consider the needs of children and ensure humane standards for children living in detention. In this Health Policy, we map the global variation in age restrictions and durations of stay in prison with a primary caregiver. We show a broad range of approaches and provisions for the placement of children in prison. Policy makers are advised to adopt provisions of Article 30 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as it is the only set of explicit guidelines regarding individualised qualitative judicial decision-making processes, consideration of relevant safeguarding factors, practical application of permissions to stay in prison regarding standards of paediatric care, and provisions of safety-net supports on prison exit. Training of staff and routine monitoring of paediatric standards of detention by national prison inspectorates and UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies are crucial. Future research agendas must focus on optimal child safeguarding and development during transfer and confinement, and on requisite prison-exit supports in various cultural contexts and settings.

Interventions to increase vaccine uptake among people who live and work in prisons: A global multistage scoping review.

The objective of this study is to examine interventions implemented to increase vaccine uptake among people who live and work in prisons around the world. Peer-reviewed and gray literature databases were searched systematically to identify relevant information published from 2012 to 2022. Publications were evaluated by two researchers independently and underwent quality assessment through established tools. Of the 11,281 publications identified through peer-reviewed (2607) and gray literature (8674) search, 17 met the inclusion criteria. In light of limited data, the identified interventions were categorized into two categories of educational and organizational interventions, and are discussed in the text. The lack of availability of vaccination services and interventions to increase vaccine uptake among people who live and work in prisons, worldwide, is a serious public health concern. These interventions reported in this review can be adapted and adopted to mitigate the burden of infectious diseases among people who live and work in prisons.

"Children in the prison nursery": Global progress in adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child in alignment with United Nations minimum standards of care in prisons.

BACKGROUND: Out of the 11 million detained in prisons globally, the female prison population of 740,000 has increased by 50 % since 2000. 410,000 children are in detention. 19,000 live in prison with their mother. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a socio legal assessment of global progress in adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child since 2010, and alignment with United Nations (UN) normative standards of care in prisons. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Children detained with their mothers at the global level. METHODS: A comprehensive search of all published Concluding Observation reports of the UN Committees on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Against Torture (CAT) and Human Rights (CCPR) since 2010 (n = 905). 316 CRC, 246 CEDAW, 173 CAT and 170 CCPR reports were scrutinised to examine the situation of children living with detained mothers against UN normative standards of care. RESULTS: 51 reports (24 CRC, 13 CEDAW, 12 CAT, 2 CCPR) representing 43 countries (majority in Africa) contained direct violations of the best interests of the child. These include the treatment of children as prisoners, difficulties in securing identity documents, poor detention conditions, exposure to violence, lack of access to child-appropriate healthcare, and lack of transparent data. Countries differed in durations of time permitting children to stay in prison (6 months to 8 years, with Eritrea observing no limit). CONCLUSIONS: Achieving a balance between protection of the child and punishment of the mother is inconsistent globally, and exacerbates the multiple vulnerabilities of the child.