Incarceration and Justice

Dostoyevsky said, "The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.” But do civilised societies need prisons at all? In this talk, senior lecturer in sociology Dr. Sarah Armstrong will share her experience researching prisons. She will focus on how Scotland uses this form of punishment – how much, for whom and with what effects. The talk offers a chance to compare our everyday knowledge of punishment with social science insights.

Ryan Dobbin started working in prisons in 2001 with Motherwell College, and is currently responsible for Fife College learning centres in HMP Shotts, HMP Edinburgh and HMPYOI Polmont. He has been a lecturer and has worked in prisons learning centres over the last 18 years. Mr Dobbin will talk about the importance of learning in prisons in general, and more specifically on the impact learning can have on prisoners, how it can help them forge new identities and the nuances of working with different prison populations.

Jamie Kerr is a specialist immigration Partner at law firm, Burness Paull. He has dealt with all aspects of migration law and over his career he has represented thousands of detainees. He will speak about incarceration of migrants within the UK immigration system and he will consider whether it is possible to control borders without an element of detention. He will speak from experience about the challenges faced by the legal system in trying to implement a fair and humane set of rules around detention and will help attendees understand the complexity of the issues around detaining migrants.