This blog has recently commented on the fact that there is an increasing marriage gap between the middle class and those from poorer areas. In the article concerned, Eve Tushnet, an American crisis-pregnancy counsellor, argued that the US’s ineffective and harmful penal policy is a major contributor to the breakdown of families from lower socio-economic groups. 

Here also in Ireland, a report on our prison system, published earlier this year by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (JCFJ), highlighted that imprisonment often has detrimental consequence for both the person imprisoned and his or her family. 

Yes, it seems that our prison system is becoming increasingly efficient at reinforcing criminal attitudes in inmates.  Last week, Carl O’Brien of the Irish Times presented the testimony of a young offender who spent time in St. Patrick’s.

“It was like going from secondary school into university. I was learning how to cut up drugs, how to wash dye out of money from security vans, doing favours for fellas in some of the gangs.”

It goes without saying that an overcrowded and underfunded system cannot hope to play a positive role in the reform of offenders and is in dire need of reform.  Unless this happens, the Irish prison system, which acts on behalf of all Irish citizens, will continue to actively contribute to the breakdown of family life in our country. 

With this is mind, The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice Ireland along with the European Scribani Network are pleased to announce the Conference: Re-imagining Imprisonment in Europe, Common Challenges, Diverse Policies and Practice which will be held this week in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland from Wednesday 5th to Friday 7th September 2012. 

The aim of the conference is to analyse some of the key features of imprisonment throughout Europe today, including the political, social and economic forces shaping prison policy and practice, and to imagine what future imprisonment might look like – in terms of prison policy, prison population size and prison conditions – by generating a new narrative of how imprisonment might be framed within a new vision and set of values.

The conference will feature presentations from national and international experts from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, criminology, philosophy, law, cultural studies and theology. 

A key aim of the conference is to provide an environment for new thinking, where selected speakers can present their research as well as there being space for exchange between practitioners, researchers and academics and policy makers.

For more information and to register for the conference go to www.jcfj.ie