PRILA Experiencing Prison Oversight: Interviews with NPMs and oversight bodies

Key Outcomes & Research Highlights

The PRILA project successfully created a new kind of scholarship focused on accountability work in prisons and its effects. The research team engaged in extensive comparative legal, qualitative, and quantitative research across Ireland, Germany, Norway, and Scotland.

The key outcomes of this pioneering work included:

• Comparative Legal Analysis: The project analysed the regulation of inspection, monitoring, and complaints. It found that while international human rights law had advanced, European human rights law in this area required strengthening.

• First Cross-European Survey: PRILA conducted the first-ever survey of all (then) EU28 countries to identify existing prison oversight bodies. This research highlighted considerable variation in how Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) bodies functioned and were resourced.

• Penal Power & Legitimacy: The team created the first comprehensive account of how external mechanisms of oversight affected penal power and penal legitimacy.

• Policy & Practice: The project sought to improve how the rule of law applied in prisons, with the aim of aiding policymakers in creating more just and effective prison systems.