News
UCC hosts half-day workshop to build an all-Island Transformative Justice Network
On 17 May a half day workshop was held in UCC to bring together different stakeholders and community members to explore the past, present, and future of prison abolition. The event was funded through the Collective Social Futures Interdisciplinary Research Programme, which seeks to drive innovative, critical, theoretical, participatory and community-engaged research,
A group of over 20 practitioners, researchers, students and people with lived experience of prison attended this creative workshop to imagine together the potential of a prison abolitionist network across the Island of Ireland and co-create its next steps and goals. The workshop originated from conversations around the expansion of prisons and carceral responses here in Ireland as well as the need to create spaces and networks in which we can come together to explore, imagine, and build an alternative abolitionist future here in Ireland. Graphic recorder, Robyn Deasy, joined for the day to record and visualise the conversations, ideas, and action items that emerged throughout the workshop.
The planned goals and anticipated outcomes of the workshop included:
- Launch of an all-island research-practitioner-lived experience prison abolitionist network
- Attendees explore their experiences of and visions of organising for transformative justice, which are illustrated through the work of a graphic artist.
- Existing abolitionist research, practice and activism in Ireland is mapped via a discursive and interactive process
- The name, goals and next steps of a network are co-created together
The next IPAN network meeting will take place in the first week of September and we will collectively progress the following items:
- Finalise and approve the IPAN guiding document based on feedback received
- Set up small teams to draft 'election information sheets' on alternatives to prison investment – as this will feature during the upcoming General Elections
- Set up team to draft abolitionist positions on de-carceral responses to current far-right and racist activities
- Write up the Graphic Recording narrative for publication
The IPAN research action network is therefore directly impacting penal policy discourse in Ireland as well as creating a space to further develop action orientated research and interventions.
Founding members:
- Dr. Katharina Swirak (UCC)(PI)
- Dr. Gillian McNaull (Ulster University)
- Kathleen White (UCC)
- Keith Adams (Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice)
- Dr. Ruari MacBride ( Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee)
- Dr. Liz Kiely (UCC)
- Dr Rosie Meade (UCC)
For more on this story contact:
Dr Katharina Swirak, Department of Sociology & Criminology, UCC.