First International Conference – Liverpool

26th and 27th April 2013, Liverpool Hope University

Our first international conference took place at Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool at the end of APril 2013. About 150 people attended. Approximately half were academic researchers associated with the research network; the other half were friends from policy and practice, or with life experience of supervision.

At the conference, the working group leaders reported the findings of the first year of our international research network (COST Action 1106) which exists to examine four main aspects of Offender Supervision in Europe: experiencing supervision, decision-making and supervision, practising supervision, and European policy and practice related to supervision. But we also enjoyed scene-setting and agenda-setting contributions from external academics: Michelle Phelps and Josh Page opened the conference and helped to set the scene, Sarah Turnbull and David Nelken closed the conference and helped to set the agenda for the next year or two of our work. Last but certainly not least, we benefited from a series of responses to the working group reports; those responses coming from policymakers, practitioners and people with experience of supervision. You can find details of all of the speakers here:

• Speaker Biographies

Most of the PowerPoint presentations are embedded in the conference agenda below and can be downloaded by double-clicking them. Video recordings of the conference sessions should be available at this page soon.

Programme

Friday 26th April

10.30             Plenary I (Chair: George Mair)

‘Offender Supervision in Europe: A very brief introduction’ (Fergus McNeill(1))

‘The Paradox of Probation–Understanding the Expansion of an Alternative to Incarceration during the Prison Boom’ (Michelle Phelps)

‘The Penal Field and Its Implications for Probation Policy and Practice’ (Joshua Page)

12.00Lunch

13.00Plenary II (Chair: Sonja Snacken)

European policy and practice (Elena Larrauri and Christine Morgenstern) WG4 Final

Respondents: Gerry McNally, Daria Janssen

14.30 Break

14.45 Plenary III (Chair: Kristel Beyens)

Decision-making and Supervision (Miranda Boone and Martine Herzog Evans) WG2 Final

Respondents: Gerhard Ploeg, Raymond Lunn

16.15   Break

16.30 Plenary IV (Chair: Lol Burke)

Practising supervision (Gwen Robinson and Kerstin Svensson) WG3 Final

Respondents: Annette Hennessy, Tony Grapes

18.00Close

19.00   Drinks reception (sponsored by Palgrave and Routledge)

20.00  Conference dinner

Saturday 27th April

9.30   Plenary V (Chair: Niamh Maguire)

Experiencing supervision (Ioan Durnescu and Christian Grafl) WG1 Final

 Respondent: Alison Liebling, Pete White

11.00    Coffee break

11.30 Plenary VI (Chair: Fergus McNeill)

 ‘The challenge of European penology: comparing for standard-ising’ (David Nelken)

‘Identity and penal power: punishment in a global age’ (Sarah Turnbull)

Respondent: Fergus McNeill(2)

If you’d like to read some of the Twitter comments on and reaction to the conference, you can access them via this link: http://storify.com/COST_OSE/offender-supervision-in-europe-conference