Research Advisory Board
Angus, Sarah
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Appleton, Catherine Amelia
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is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research and Education in Security, Prisons and Forensic Psychiatry, St Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, and at the Institute of Law, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. She is also Chair of Penal Reform International and Co-Director of the international research group prisonHEALTH.
Armstrong, Ruth
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is the Research and Policy Officer at the Confederation of European Probation and a researcher in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool. Her award winning work has focussed on understanding how people rebuild their lives after spending time in prison and she has worked globally with practitioners throughout the criminal justice system, in courts, prisons and with probation teams to build bridges between research and practice and support systems change. She directs Justice Matters, a consultancy working with senior justice leaders globally to bring evidence to action for change, speaks English and Spanish fluently, and is both British and Irish, so a firm European at heart!
Aydinoglu, Idil
- is a lawyer, researcher and programme manager with over ten years of experience across European criminal justice systems and human rights advocacy. She is currently Regional Programme Manager at Penal Reform International, where she leads the organisation's work to make criminal justice systems more effective and to strengthen the safety, treatment and rights of people within them, with particular expertise on marginalised groups including women, LGBTI+ people and children, and on life imprisonment. She holds an advanced LL.M. in International and European Human Rights Law from Leiden University.
Begg, Laura
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Blokland, A
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de Boois, Maaike A.
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is a sociologist at the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, where she develops evidence-informed policy on probation, sentencing, and long-term prison capacity. Her work focuses on criminal justice systems, professional interventions, and sustainable approaches to executing sentences. She was involved in the organization of the 6th and 7th World Congress on Probation and Parole (2024 and 2026) and serves on the supervisory committee of Roermond Prison in the Netherlands.
Eberhart, Tom
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Halsey, Mark
- is Matthew Flinders Professor of Criminology, Flinders University, Australia. He is Director of the Centre of Excellence for Prisoner Reintegration (CEPR)—a multi-institutional initiative which adopts a First Nations and strengths-based lens for critically analysing and supporting good reintegration journeys across multiple Australian jurisdictions. Mark also leads an Industry Laureate Fellowship designed to embed an assisted desistance framework in all publicly operated prisons in New South Wales (Australia’s largest jurisdiction). Both projects are funded by the Australian Research Council.
Harding, David J.
- is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research includes the impacts of incarceration on recidivism and employment, community supervision, prisoner reentry and reintegration, and criminal record stigma. He is the co-author of On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration (Chicago, 2019) and After Prison: Navigating Adulthood in the Shadow of the Justice System (Russell Sage, 2020).
Harg, Morten G.
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with a Degree in Business Administration and Marketing. Experience as a CEO and board chair. Former member of the advisory board for the Norwegian Correctional Service. Lived experience with imprisonment. Worked with the rehabilitation of convicted individuals at the Red Cross from 2016 to 2026.
Humanitas, Khalil
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Laursen, Julie
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is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Copenhagen, and a co-leader of the Copenhagen Centre for Criminology. Her expertise lies in comparative prisons research, indeterminate sentences, and imprisonment in the Nordic countries.
Matthews, Ben
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Maybee, James
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McGhee, John
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Morar, Ioana
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Mjåland, Kristian
- is pro-rector for research and dissemination at The Norwegian University College for Prison and Probation Studies, and Professor in Sociology at the University of Agder. His research interests include prisons, punishment and drugs, and he explores such phenomena primarily through qualitative, comparative and ethnographic methods.
Ploeg, Gerhard J PhD
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is a retired criminologist who has worked as a researcher and a policy worker in corrections at a national level in The Netherlands and in Norway for resp. 28 and 19 years.
Rope, Olivia
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is the Executive Director of Penal Reform International, is a recognised leader in the field of criminal justice reform and a human rights expert. She has vast experience advancing international standards and accountability in criminal justice systems, working extensively with governments, oversight bodies, civil society and multilateral institutions.
Schinkel, Marguerite
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is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and Associate Director of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Her work focuses on the justice experiences of those who are criminalised, with a focus on how they make sense of their punishment, and those who have survived harm. She is interested in alternative ways of achieving justice, penal abolition, and public communication that might change the debate around crime and punishment.
Skardhamar, Torbjørn
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Thom, Fiona
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Todd-Kvam, John
- is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University College of the Norwegian Correctional Service. His research encompasses desistance from crime, penal politics and the penal field, and life during and after punishment. John has previously held policy and leadership roles connected to justice reforms and the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Westerik, J
- details to follow