Leveraging Technology in Prisoner Rehabilitation: Highlighted in UNICRI Report on 'Digital Rehabilitation in Prisons'

TIC 2024 Presentation by Mana Yamamoto, Pia Puolakka, Victoria Knight and Stuart Ross (TIC2024-PID031)

Authors

Mana Yamamoto

Research Expert, UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute), Italy

Mana Yamamoto has 19 years’ experience in the field of prison management and reform in Japan and internationally as a correctional psychologist with a Ph.D. in psychology. She had worked for the Ministry of Justice of Japan, where she was responsible for management of the prison rehabilitation programmes, and she was a professor at the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), where she was in charge of international training courses provided technical assistance to developing countries. Mana Yamamoto is currently working as the Research Expert at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) for conducting research and implementing technical assistance projects on rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.

Pia Puolakka

Independent Expert, Finland

Ms Pia Puolakka has been working in the field of corrections since 2008. In 2018-2022, she worked in the Smart Prison project implementing Finland’s first cell devices with digital services to a new women’s prison.
She has specialized in rehabilitative and digital services in prisons and is also a specialist in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for corrections. She has also done research regarding prison digitalization and use of AI in corrections which has received international attention. She is a member (co-chair) of the EuroPris ICT Expert group, and in 2021-2023 she was part of the Council of Europe’s Council for Penological Co-operation’s (PC-CP) expert group developing recommendations for the use of AI in corrections. By education, she is a forensic psychologist and psychotherapist and is currently studying international leadership.

Victoria Knight

Associate Professor, De Montfort University, United Kingdom

Dr Victoria Knight is associate professor in research at De Montfort University, UK. She directs the Prison and Probation Research Hub and codirects the Institute for Community, Criminology, Education and Social Justice. Victoria has extensively published on the digital prison and continues to actively research this topic both in the UK and across the globe. She also consults with prisons, charities and digital developers on digitization.She is a co-editor of The Journal for Prison Education and Resettlement and supports the Advancing Corrections Journal. She contributes to prison practice and has served for 17 years on English Independent Monitoring Boards.

Stuart Ross

Enterprise Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia

Stuart Ross is Enterprise Professor of Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Until 2019 he was also General Manager, Research and Development at Caraniche, a forensic psychology services provider. His recent research includes the development of a composite social index for the impact of family violence (with Professor Kelsey Hegarty), and the evaluation of an on-line application for family violence intervention orders (with the Neighbourhood Justice Centre). He is also working on the potential for mobile applications to support the delivery of forensic drug and alcohol treatment. Dr. Ross teaches in the Discipline of Criminology, and supervises a range of graduate and post-graduate students.

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