The Prison Project of Human Rights Watch was formed in 1988 to focus international attention on prison conditions worldwide. Its work cuts across the five regional divisions of the organization. The project investigates conditions for sentenced prisoners, pretrial detainees, and those held in police lock-ups. It examines conditions for all prisoners, without limiting its work to prisoners held for political reasons.

In addition to pressing for improvement in prison conditions in particular countries that are studied, the project seeks to place the problem of prison conditions on the international human rights agenda. We believe that a government's claim to respect human rights should be assessed in part on the basis of how it treats its prison population. Our experience so far has shown that a number of democratic countries that are rarely or never a focus of human rights investigations are in fact guilty of serious human rights violations within their prisons.

In previous years, the project conducted studies in Brazil, Czechoslovakia, India, Indonesia, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Jamaica, Mexico, Poland and Turkey. In 1991, studies were conducted in Puerto Rico, Romania, Spain, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Reports were published on India, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Mexico, the Soviet Union and the United States. Updates were also published on prison conditions in Poland and Czechoslovakia following political transformations in those countries, and a newsletter was issued on Puerto Rico.

In an effort calling for increased attention to prison conditions within the thirty-eight-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), the Prison Project prepared a document outlining its findings on prison conditions in seven CSCE countries, which was released at the opening of the September CSCE human rights conference in Moscow. Findings from prison studies were also included in a report on human rights in various Commonwealth countries presented by Human Rights Watch during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, which was held in Zimbabwe in October. The Prison Project was also invited to present a paper on prison conditions in Puerto Rico to a May conference in Trinidad organized by Caribbean Rights and Prison Reform International.

The Prison Project was successful in generating press attention in several of the countries where it investigated prison conditions, including major articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times following the November publication of the report on the United States.

Of the countries where investigations have been undertaken, the Prison Project has been able to secure access to penal institutions in more than half. The project has a self-imposed set of rules for prison visits: the investigators undertake visits only when they and not the authorities can suggest institutions to be visited, when they can be confident that they will be allowed to talk privately with inmates of their choice, and when they can gain access to the entire facility. These rules are adopted to avoid being shown model institutions or their most presentable parts. When no access is possible, reporting is based on interviews with former prisoners, prisoners on furloughs, relatives of inmates, lawyers, prison experts and prison staff, and on documentary evidence. Prison investigations are usually conducted by teams composed of a staff member and a member of the Prison Advisory Committee, which guides the work of the project. Occasionally, the project invites an outside expert to participate in a particular investigation.

The Prison Advisory Committee is chaired by Herman Schwartz, of the American University Law School. Other members are Nan Aron, Vivian Berger, Haywood Burns, Alejandro Garro, William Hellerstein, Edward Koren, Sheldon Krantz, Benjamin Malcolm, Diane Orentlicher, Norman Rosenberg, David Rothman and Clarence Sundram. The director of the project is Joanna Weschler. Lamia Matta is the associate.