The sanitation target of the Sustainable Development Goals is that everyone should have a ‘safely-managed’ sanitation facility by 2030 and that open defecation be eliminated. The scale of this target is unprecedently large: ∼5.6 billion additional people will require safely-managed sanitation by 2030 (∼1 million per day), and ∼1.3 billion people will need to switch from open to fixed-defecation in a sanitation facility by 2030 (240,000 per day). Safely-managed shared sanitation and container-based sanitation are both likely to be part of the solution, particularly in urban slums. The SDG hygiene target covers facilities for handwashing with soap, menstrual-hygiene management, and food hygiene, but only handwashing with soap is monitored by WHO/UNICEF. In 2015, the percentage of people with handwashing-with-soap facilities at home ranged from 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa to 76% in Western Asia and North Africa. The costs to meet these targets are around US$46 billion in urban areas, and US$25 billion in rural areas, per year during 2016–2030. Benefit-cost ratios are ∼18 in rural areas. There is a correspondingly considerable need for training local sanitation and hygiene professionals, so that they can plan and design interventions to meet the SDG target.

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The sanitation and hygiene targets of the sustainable development goals: scope and challenges

While prisons in Africa are often considered the worst in the world many other prisons systems are worse off in terms of violence, overcrowding and a host of other problems. This is not to argue that African prisons are human rights friendly. Many are in a deficient condition and their practices are at odds with human rights standards. However, prisons in many parts of the world are in crisis. Never before have there been so many problems within penal systems and such large numbers of people in institutions of incarceration. This article examines the historical development of African prisons from colonial times and considers the legacy that colonialism has left in prisons on the continent. The article also examines a range of issues in prisons throughout Africa including pretrial detention, overcrowding, resources and governance, women and children in prison, and rehabilitation. A substantial amount of space is devoted to the reforms that are occurring across the continent, and recommendations are made with regard to what further reforms are necessary. The role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa are also considered.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1368922_code16031.pdf?abstractid=1368922&mirid=3

Prisons in Africa: An Evaluation from a Human Rights Perspective

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Managing Prisons in a Time of Change

In the mid and late 20th century, the U.S. diverged markedly from other Western nations first in its high rates of serious violent crime, and soon after in the severity of its governmental responses. This has left an appalling legacy of American exceptionalism in crime and punishment (“AECP”) for the new century. When the U.S. is compared with other Western countries, and criticized as an outlier in criminal justice policy, the conversation usually narrows to two subjects: (1) high incarceration rates; and (2) the nation’s continued use of the death penalty. One goal of this book is to broaden the scope of AECP inquiry to include sanctions beyond incarceration and the death penalty. From what we know, the U.S. imposes and administers probation, parole, economic sanctions, and collateral consequences of conviction with a heavier hand than other developed democracies. “Mass punishment” in America goes well beyond “mass incarceration,” and severe racial disparities exist across the full spectrum of criminal penalties. In addition, the book insists that any discussion of AECP should focus on serious violent crime in the U.S. along with the nation’s penal severity. More often than not, American crime is discounted in the academic literature as having little or no causal influence on the harshness of American criminal punishment. With respect to homicide and other serious violence, this is a mistake. The chapter starts with a brief tour of the conventional AECP subject areas of incarceration and the death penalty. Next, it introduces claims that a wider menu of sanction types should be included in AECP analyses. Finally, it speaks to the importance of late-twentieth-century crime rates to U.S. punitive expansionism.

Introduction: American exceptionalism in crime and punishment: Broadly defined

The paper provides an international comparison of problems of prison overcrowding. Particular focus is on the definition of overcrowding, its extent in Europe, the US, South America, Africa, Asia, and post-conflict and conflict-affected countries, its causes and effects. It addresses problems of assessing occupancy rates resulting from the lack of robust data on the number of prisoners detained and available, which are further intensified by dissenting conceptions about parameters of adequate prison space. In addition, concepts for policies and strategies aiming at diminishing prison rates are developed and discussed. Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law Freiburg im Breisgau

Brian Tkachuk

Papers

World Prison Population: Facts, Trends and Solutions