British parole system ‘in meltdown’

Nearly 1,000 criminals on parole are missing. Is that all, asks an unsurprised probation officer

Why Ronnie Biggs should be freed

Jack Straw's decision to leave Biggs to die behind bars is pointless, and shows that prison sentences need consistency

Pic of the Day: Collapsed Chinese viaduct

Guards search inmates for weapons after violence erupts over visits

Pic of the Day: Riot police clear French prison demonstration

French police deploy tear gas against protesting prison wardens

‘Love letter’ plea for Roxana Saberi’s freedom

Iranian film director pleads with authorities to release his fiancee ­ claiming that she is too pure

Life without parole - a fate worse than the death penalty

Convicts in the US are being locked away until they die, forgotten by reformers opposed to the death penalty

Picture past, March 21: Alcatraz closes

1963: on this day, the infamous prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay was closed

Pic of the Day: Prayer at US prison camp

Detainees pray at Camp Bucca, a US military detention facility in Iraq

Private prisons that fight to lock up America’s children

Juvenile detention centres in the US have even bribed judges to imprison young offenders