Prison Health & Rights Consortium
The Prison Health & Rights Consortium (PHRC) is a consortium of two networks working to support the health and human rights of prisoners and former prisoners in Europe and Central Asia.
| Grantee type: Regional Consortium |
| Grant: $620,000 |
| Grant period: 2019-2021 |
| Lead organization: Mpact (Formerly The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF)) |
Partner organizations:
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The PHRC links the Eurasian Network of People Who Use Drugs (EnPUD), a community-based network representing the interests of people who use drugs in Europe and Central Asia, and the European Prison Litigation Network (EPLN), a network of prisoners’ rights defenders in Council of Europe Member States.
- Throughout the world, law enforcement and criminal justice systems disproportionately detain and punish people who are marginalized because of poverty, mental health issues, substance use, migrant status or national origin, sexuality or gender expression, or other issues that should not be a cause for incarceration.
- People who are detained, jailed, or incarcerated can face worse mental health and substance use issues because of abusive and violent conditions in detention facilities. Prisoners can be exposed to tuberculosis because of overcrowded and poorly ventilated facilities. Inmates also are exposed to risks of infections such as hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV due to unsafe sexual activities (including among men having sex with men), unsafe tattooing, blood sharing rituals, and sharing of injection equipment. In most countries, health care in jails and prisons is inadequate to prevent or treat these health issues. For these reasons, the global prevalence of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis among prisoners is 2 to 10 times higher than in the general population.
- After release from detention, former prisoners face poverty because of social dislocation and legal barriers to work, education and housing. Former inmates can also experience isolation and lack of services because of stigma and discrimination associated with incarceration.
- Prisoners and former prisoners have important direct experience of their health needs and barriers to health services. Linking prisoners and former inmates with human rights defenders can help to develop strategic services and advocacy to reduce detention and incarceration of people, improve conditions for detainees and prisoners in line with human rights conventions and treaties, and improve services for people caught up in criminal justice systems.
RCF funding 2019-2021
The Prison Health & Rights Consortium (PHRC) was awarded US$ 620,000 in funding from the Robert Carr Fund for work during 2019-2021. This funding was allocated to both core and strategic program costs to increase the self-representation of prisoners and former prisoners in human rights advocacy work; link networks of prisoners and former prisoners, communities of people who use drugs and people who live with HIV and human rights defenders; and strengthen advocacy to reduce detention and incarceration of drug users and advance the rights and health of people who are detained, jailed and incarcerated.
Geographic coverage
The Prison Health & Rights Consortium (PHRC) is a consortium of two networks – EnPUD and EPLN — working in Europe and Central Asia.
Population coverage
The Prison Health & Rights Consortium (PHRC) is focused on increasing the self-representation of prisoners and former prisoners in human rights advocacy and building the capacity of communities of people who use drugs and people who live with HIV to work with prisoners and former prisoners and represent the interests of prisoners at key national and international decision-making levels.
Activities 2019-2021
With RCF funding in 2019-2021, the Prison Health & Rights Consortium (PHRC) will
- Increase the self-representation of prisoners and former prisoners in human rights advocacy work through workshops.
- Link networks of prisoners and former prisoners, communities of people who use drugs and people who live with HIV, and human rights defenders and build capacity for collaborative and sustained advocacy and litigation at national and international levels for prisoners’ health and rights.
- Create a safe internet platform for collection of information on prisoner rights violations in Europe and Central Asia.
- Conduct policy research to document the health and human rights situations of prisoners and former prisoners and the services and policies that impact these health and rights-related conditions.
- Help networks of people who use drugs and PLHIV to assess risks and feasibility of accessing prisons and working for prisoner rights, and to develop long-term advocacy approaches for the improvement of legal and health status of people who are detained, jailed and incarcerated.
- Organizing advocacy campaigns at the Council of Europe level and litigation campaigns at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to reduce detention and incarceration of drug users, increase accounting of health considerations in judicial decisions concerning persons prosecuted or sentenced for narcotics-related offenses, and increase the effective access of HIV+ prisoners to non-custodial / early release measures.
- Advocate for the integration of prison medicine into the general health system under the principle of equivalence of care outside and inside prison, with specific attention to quality and accessibility of services related to HIV, HCV and harm reduction.
Intended results 2019-2021
The intended results from this work during 2019-2021 will include:
- Network strength and influence: Increased self-representation of prisoners and former prisoners in human rights advocacy work; stronger linkages among networks of prisoners and former prisoners, communities of people who use drugs and people who live with HIV, and human rights defenders; and greater regional collaboration and coordination in advocacy about prisoner rights in Europe and Central Asia.
- Human rights: Documentation of the human rights situations of prisoners and former prisoners to increase access to HIV services
- Access to services: Support for networks of people who use drugs and PLHIV to access prisons and provide services for prisoners, and support for advocacy for the integration of prison medicine into the general health system under the principle of equivalence of care outside and inside prison, with specific attention to quality and accessibility of services related to HIV, HCV and harm reduction.