Catherine Heard

Catherine joined ICPR as a senior research fellow in April 2016 to direct the World Prison Research Programme. This programme of international comparative research on prisons and imprisonment builds on the foundation of ICPR’s renowned database, the World Prison Brief. Before joining ICPR, Catherine had been a lawyer in the criminal law team at the Law Commission of England and Wales, obtained a master’s degree in international human rights law, and worked as a criminal justice policy specialist at several non-profit organisations, following a ten-year career as a solicitor in international litigation. 

Catherine’s research interests centre on prisons and the use of imprisonment worldwide, encompassing: international and regional trends in prison population levels; custodial sentencing policy and practice; the law and practice of pre-trial detention; the human rights of prisoners; prison health and healthcare; and alternatives to imprisonment. Catherine has conducted comparative research on these and other topics in Europe, Brazil, the USA, South Africa, Kenya, India, Thailand and Australia. Much of this research is conducted in collaboration with academic and civil society partners from other jurisdictions. Catherine has obtained several substantial grants to fund ICPR’s prisons research. In 2022 she won a Birkbeck Public Engagement Award for public participation in research.  

A full list of Catherine's publications is available here