CPPDS: Center for Penal Policy and Detention Studies
CPPDS is set up to creatively respond to a
social need and a business opportunity. Ireland needs more and better
private prison spaces. Like all modern societies with a thriving tabloid newspaper industry, this country is
currently in the grip of a desperate crime wave. Shootings, stabbings, burglarizations, sexual harassment, Internet fraud,
alcohol violations, dangerous driving, drug running, pornography peddling, jaywalking, kerb-crawling, cybersquatting and other forms
of anti-social behavior abound in our cities, towns, villages and gated communities. It
is only a matter of time before social pressures, informed by
excellent media coverage, build up to a
decisive political conclusion, based on our premises. Lets get serious here. We just got to enforce those laws, pass stiffer
sentences and increase the availability of prison spaces to cope with
the influx of convicts. Time after time, the zero tolerance get-tough
approach has been shown to work. Ireland has the youngest population
in the European Union, so we confidently look forward to a rise in serious crime
over the coming decade.
Why should the hard-pressed taxpayer carry the
financial burden of delinquency? Why not follow the example of
America, Australia and other English-speaking countries, and hand the
prison industry over to those best qualified to run it: the
profitable private prison providers? Ireland is an attractive proposition, because you guys don't have the death penalty. If we can get your sentencing policies up to best international practise, then the sky - what your Oscar Wilde called that little patch of blue - is literally the limit.
There is going to be a strong demand throughout Ireland for
well-trained penologists and prison administrators, capable of
running a profitable and cost-effective correctional facility regime.
At the present time, no Irish university conducts cutting edge
research and advanced degrees in this important growth area. With
funding from the International Correctional Industry Foundation, the
King's College Center for Penal Policy and Detention
Studies is a trailblazer for research and training in an exciting academic
field. CPPDS is headed up by Dick Lovelace, whose experience in the
privatization of criminal facilities spans three continents. He is the founder of Moms for Drug-Free Prisons, Inc., and a non-executive director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Convict Reform Through Psychotropic Substance Therapy.
Professor Lovelace, who will visit King's College at least once a term during the academic year, comes to us through the good offices of our global
partners, Finer Small Campuses of the Western World. He is currently
recruiting contract staff and an advisory board drawn from leaders of
opinion in Ireland.
