CSPRI to change name to ACJR on 18 April 2017

The Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) was established in 2003 and became a Dullah Omar Insitute (DOI) project in 2007. The project was established to address the research and advocacy gaps around imprisonment and human rights in South Africa. This it did by engaging in a productive research programme and engaging with key stakeholders such as the Office of the Inspecting Judge, Parliament and a range of civil society organisations.

Since the late 2000s the project expanded its scope geographically as well as thematically. It now looks beyond prisons to include pretrial and post-trial rights and practices at the time of arrest, police custody, trial and provisional release; forms of detention other than imprisonment; the prevention and prohibition of torture; oversight of custodial settings; the socio-economic impact of detention; auditing of detention conditions and the quantitative analysis of criminal justice processes. In recent years CSPRI has conducted research, provided technical assistance and support, and engaged in advocacy in Angola, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In short, CSPRI now works in the field of criminal justice and human rights on the African continent.

Against this background, the title ‘Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative’ is no longer properly reflective of the scope of our work and it is proposed to change it to ‘Africa Criminal Justice Reform’. Considering its African footprint, it will also be referred to as Organisation pour la Réforme de la Justice Pénale en Afrique (in French) and Organização para a Reforma da Justiça Criminal em África (in Portuguese).

The new website will become available on 18 April.