Free Public Seminar -- The Cost of Prison?

9th November 2006

IPRT Chairperson Claire Hamilton will be among the speakers at a public seminar organised by The Community Foundation for Ireland in collaboration with Philanthropy Ireland.

"The Cost of Prison" will address the present situation in prisons in Ireland and the social and financial costs. It will look at the experience in the UK and policy lessons for Ireland. Finally, alternatives to custody and partnering with communities in reducing re-offending will be examined.

Speakers will include:

Juliet Lyons, Director, Penal Reform Trust UK

Dr. Ian O'Donnell, Director, UCD Institute of Criminology 

Claire Hamilton, Lecturer in Criminology and Chairperson, Irish Penal Reform Trust

Gerry McNally, Assistant Director of Operations in the Probation Service 

Seminar: The Cost of Prison?

4pm to 6.30pm, Thursday 9^th November 2006

IBEC Offices 84- 86 Lower Baggot Street

Dublin 2

To book your place please contact The Community Foundation for Ireland by phone 00 353 1874 7354 or via email at rmooney@foundation.ie.

As places are limited please book your place as soon as possible. Closing date for bookings 3^rd November 2006.

 
SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Juliet Lyon is the Director of the Prison Trust (PRT) UK. PRT aims to create a just, humane and effective penal system. It provides information, conducts research and works as the secretariat to the UK All Party Parliamentary Penal Affairs Group. Previously Juliet was associate director of the Trust for the Study of Adolescence. She has worked in mental health and in education as head of a psychiatric unit school. Her publications are mostly about young people on the margins of society. She currently contributes to the Ministerial Roundtable on Prison Suicides.

Dr. Ian O'Donnell is professor of criminology at University College Dublin and Director of the UCD Institute of Criminology. His research interests include penal policy, violent crime and the politics of law and order. He was previously Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust and Research Officer at the Oxford University Centre for Criminological Research

Claire Hamilton LL. B. (Ling. Franc.), B.L., M. Litt., DipEurCon on Human Rights, is a barrister and a Lecturer in Criminology, Dublin Institute of Technology.  She is currently Chair of the Irish Penal Reform Trust and is author of the forthcoming book The Presumption of Innocence in Irish Criminal Law by Irish Academic Press. 

Gerry McNally is Assistant Director of Operations in the Probation Service based at Smithfield Chambers, Dublin 7. He has responsibility for service delivery and development of community based projects and initiatives working with the Probation Service in addition to responsibility for the management and development of Community Service Orders.