Seminar: Kan fængsler være humane?

TID: Torsdag den 4. december kl. 16.00-18.00

STED: Danish Institute Against Torture, Bryggervangen 55, 2100 København Ø

TILMELDING: Deltagelse er gratis. 

 

Can prisons be humane?

DIGNITY works for a world without torture.

TID: Torsdag den 4. december kl. 16.00-18.00

STED: Danish Institute Against Torture, Bryggervangen 55, 2100 København Ø

TILMELDING: Deltagelse er gratis. 

 

Can prisons be humane?

DIGNITY works for a world without torture.

Around the world we work with local organisations committed to preventing torture in places of detention and promoting compliance with human rights standards.

But what would an ideal prison look like? Can prisons be humane?

Is the idea of a humane prison a contradiction in terms?

Can punishment be humane? Or are prisons inevitably violent?

– It is widely agreed in the human rights community and beyond that places of detention need external scrutiny in order to curb potential excesses and abuses of power and authority.

Sometimes this scrutiny is inbuilt within democratic structures of checks and balance, and legislation.

In other contexts human rights institutions or civil society organisations take leading roles in holding states accountable through monitoring activities and advocacy.  

As an NGO with a strong foundation in research and knowledge generation DIGNITY emphasises the potential of social scientific research as an alternative way of scrutinising places of detention, documenting, explaining and promoting change.

To debate these issues and respond to questions this panel brings together a prison governor from Denmark, the governor of a unique therapeutic prison in England and a prison scholar from UK as well as DIGNITY’s own Head of Rehabilitation who previously worked as a psychologist for the Danish Prisons Service.

Panel debate:

Jamie Bennett – Prison Governor, Grendon and Spring Hill Prisons

Anne Marie Heckscher – Prison Governor, Sønder Omme Prison

Deborah Drake – Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Open University

David Oehlenschläger – Director of Rehabilitation, DIGNITY

Everyone is welcome!