30th March 2006
VOICES RISING - Volume 4, Number 3The IPRT will hold its 2006 Annual Meeting of members on 25 May ay 4pm. The IPRT Annual Lecture with Thomas Mathiesen will immediately follow.
The venue will be announced shortly.
IPRT members are encouraged to ensure their memberships are paid for 2006 to entitle them to vote.
Non-members of the IPRT are encouraged to take out a paid membership before May 25th to be able to participate.
The IPRT is pleased to announce that our 2006 Annual Lecture will be delivered by Thomas Mathiesen, speaking on the topic "10 reasons for not building more prisons".
Thomas Mathiesen is Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo and has written extensively on prisons, criminology, law, mass media and social control. His widely acclaimed works include Prison On Trial (1990, Third Edition 2006), The Defences of the Weak (1965), The Politics of Abolition (1974), Law, Society and Political Action (1980) and Silently Silenced: Essays on the Creation of Aquiensence in Modern Society (First English Edition, 2004).
In addition to his academic work, Prof. Mathiesen has taken an active part in the development of the Scandinavian prison movement. He was a founding member of KROM - The Norwegian Association for Penal Reform - and served as the organisation's Chairman from 1968 to 1973. KROM organizes prisoners, ex-prisoners and non-prisoners in penal reform work, and has served as a model for similar organizational activities in several other countries.
The IPRT Annual Lecture will be held on Thursday 25 May at 6pm. It is a free event open to both IPRT members and non-members.
The venue will be announced shortly.On March 9th, the IPRT, the Irish Refugee Council and the Immigrant Council of Ireland held a briefing session for TDs and Senators on the findings and recommendations of their joint Immigrationrelated Detention Report
The briefing was held in the Oireachtas, and featured a presentation by Mark Kelly of Human Rights Consultants who prepared the report on behalf of the three organisations.
Our thanks to Senator Mary Henry for her assistance and support in organising the event.
On Tuesday, March 28th members of the Irish Youth Justice Alliance appeared before the Oireachtas Justice Committee to voice our concerns about the Government's forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill.
Representing the IPRT on the delegation was Dr. Ursula Kilkelly, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at University College Cork and a member of the IPRT Board of Directors.
The oral and written submissions of the IYJA to the Justice Committee will soon be available on the IPRT website.
IPRT Executive Director Rick Lines will be giving a free public lecture at University College Cork on the topic "Living in the Past: The Americanization of the Irish prison system" on Saturday, 1 April.
The lecture will take place as part of UCC Faculty fo Law's Globalisation Seminar Series.
Mr. Lines will be speaking at 2pm in Elect Eng L2 [This is a seminar room right beside the main security gate at the college road entrance to UCC.]In April, IPRT Executive Diretor Rick Lines will travel to Warsaw where he has been invited to address 200 delegates at a conference of the Polish Prison Medical Service.
Mr. Lines will speak on the topic "Prison Health and Public Health: Harm Reduction in Prison and European Human Rights Law".
While in Poland, Mr. Lines will also take the opportunity to visit Polish prisons and meet with prisoners and prison officials.
A new report from the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe provides analysis and recommendations on the issue of prisoner/ex-prisoner reintegration.
The section on electronic tagging is fantasy-based, but otherwise the report contains much useful information!
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.