A very valuable report called The Vicious Circle of Social Exclusion and Crime: Ireland’s Disproportionate Punishment of the Poor was launched today by the Irish Penal Reform Trust with Community Platform. The details of the report are outlined below, but there was a couple of examples of the uneven nature of the Irish justice system [...]

The appointment of former secretary general of the Department of Justice Seán Aylward to the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture was described by the Justice for Magdalenes group as ‘a slap in the face to women who have suffered in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries‘. This was on account of his appearance in [...]

A fortnight ago the HSE published the first round of reports from the National Review Panel for Serious Incidents and Child Deaths relating to children known social services within the HSE.
As one has, regrettably, come to expect the report received fleeting coverage in the print and broadcast media. The coverage it did receive was littered [...]

On the 12th of January 2010, Haiti was devastated by an earthquake which struck some 10 miles Southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince. Recording 7.0 on the Richter scale, it left 220,000 people dead, over 300,000 more injured. Haiti’s already inadequate  infrastructure was also severely affected as the earthquake damaged or destroyed as many as 250,000 [...]

Last Saturday night when disturbances in Tottenham began I tweeted the following “Its a bus and a few cars. Bigger problems in London that 24 hour news doesnt tell you to talk about.Keep calm and carry on. #tottenhamriot“.
It was not my intention to be as dismissive as it now seems I was . Rather, [...]

The identification of offenders as members of a criminal gang is generally not an essential criterion in the prosecution of offences. It is not therefore possible to ascertain the precise number of criminals who are members of criminal gangs operating in this country. Nor is it possible to provide statistics of the kind sought by [...]

I have been thinking about the present scandals enveloping the Catholic Church in Ireland. People say, ‘How could they do it, men and women of God?’, or ‘How could they believe in the Gospel’, etc. The bafflement is understandable since the Church has always represented itself as a form of institutionalised [...]

Original article by Dany Stive was published on the 12th of Feb in l’Humanité. Translated by David Lundy.

The 11th annual World Social Forum (WSF), held in Dakar, has just closed its doors. Buoyed by developments in North Africa, this forum had a significant impact, reviving interest in the global justice movement.
The people of Tunisia [...]

The fifth report on Ireland from the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Degrading Treatment (CPT), published today, is the most critical yet, and a damning indictment of a prison system that is failing to meet the most basic human rights standards of safe and humane custody. The Irish Penal Reform [...]

Joint statement ISSUED BY:
Irish Penal Reform Trust
Barnardos
Eddie Darcy, Catholic Youth Care
Children’s Rights Alliance
Irish Association for Young People in Care
Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice
Catherine Ghent, solicitor
Dr. Ursula Kilkelly, UCC
Fr. Peter McVerry, Peter McVerry Trust
Young offenders’ capacity for rehabilitation is being undermined by imprisonment in St Patrick’s Institution and urgent action is required to minimize the [...]