Round Up: Progress in the Penal System

17th October 2017

The Irish Penal Reform Trust launched a major new report Progress in the Penal System: A framework for penal reform (2017) on 24th October 2017 in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

This report is the first in a series of three annual reports providing a comprehensive report on human rights and best practice in Ireland’s penal system. IPRT has developed 35 standards against which the prevailing situation in Ireland’s penal system will be independently tracked, monitored and assessed on an annual basis.

The report covers wide-ranging areas of penal policy including prison conditions, regimes, and access to education and services. IPRT sought input from experts (both national and international) on the different issues and areas covered in the report.

Download the report here.

Download the executive summary here.

The launch was chaired by Aislinn O'Donnell, Professor of Education at Maynooth University. Speakers and panellists (in order of speaking) included:

• Deirdre Malone, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust;
• Michelle Martyn, Senior Research and Policy Manager, Irish Penal Reform Trust;
• Governor Ethel Gavin, Irish Prison Service;
• Noel Dowling, Principal Officer, Department of Justice and Equality;
• Alison Hannah, Executive Director, Penal Reform International;
• Ian O'Donnell, Professor of Criminology, University College Dublin.

More photos of the event are available here. 

Media coverage:

• RTÉ Radio One, Morning Ireland: Irish prison system should aspire to be a world class prison system - report (listen back below)
• Irish prison system should aspire to be a world class prison system - report
• Irish Legal News: Penal reform group launches first of three annual reports on penal system
• TheJournal.ie: Prisoners want to be able to use Skype to contact their families
• Newstalk: Executive Director, Deirdre Malone, talks to Ivan Yeats about PIPS (roughly 10 minutes in)

This 3-year flagship project is kindly supported by The Community Foundation for Ireland.