23rd June 2011
Director's Blog: The NI Prisoner Ombudsman, Pauline McCabe, recently published her report into the death of 19-year-old Allyn Baxter. In the report, she makes very clear statements against 22-hr lock up for young prisoners: "Long periods of lockdown, in my view, do nothing to address offending behaviour and are the enemy of the vulnerable."
20th June 2011
Guest Blog: A new report from the Prison Reform Trust (UK) examines the causes and possible solutions to women's offending behaviour.
25th February 2011
Director's Blog: Structural economic inequality is the elephant in the room when it comes to projecting future crime levels, writes Liam Herrick on #CRISISJAM.
11th February 2011
Director's Blog: This week saw the publication of perhaps the most damning report yet on our prison system from the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture. This report is shocking by any standards. We sincerely hope that the next Government will finally grasp that nettle and if it does so it will have our sincere support.
7th February 2011
Director's Blog: Book launches can be quite dry affairs, but the launch last week of Christina Quinlan's 'Inside: Ireland's Women's Prisons, Past and Present' was a stark exception.
27th January 2011
Director's Blog: Following on from last week’s blog about an open prison in Norway, last Friday IPRT visited Shelton Abbey open prison in Co. Wicklow.
20th January 2011
The next Government could do worse than look at a fascinating TG4 ‘Fíorscéal’ documentary on a Norwegian Open Prison, aired on 18th January. The documentary on the Bastøy Prison near Oslo was a compelling depiction of what a prison could be like.
23rd December 2010
Irish Penal Reform Trust and the United Nations' UPR
10th November 2010
Director's Blog: Yesterday I attended the 25th anniversary conference of the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas, an important milestone for a wonderful organisation and for an important part of the Irish prison story.
18th October 2010
Director's Blog: If you want to get a clear picture of the moral quality or otherwise of our legal system, a good place to start would be Dearbhail McDonald’s recent book “Bust: How the Courts have Exposed the Rotten Heart of the Irish Economy”.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.