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- Title
Translating Lived Criminal Justice Experience into Policy Innovation: Countering the Stigma of a Criminal Record Through a Strengths-Based Disclosure Model.
- Authors
Quinn, Damien; Swirak, Katharina
- Abstract
This article is based on the lived experience of one of the authors (Damien) of overcoming the challenges of living with a criminal record and using it to set up the Spéire Nua project ('New Horizon'). The authors describe the context of currently ongoing and welcome policy developments and briefly outline some well-documented harms resulting from criminal record disclosure requirements. They then explore Damien's reflections on how he experienced set-backs and hurdles when attempting to move on in his life with a criminal conviction, showing how criminal record disclosures can counter reintegrative aims. The article continues by outlining how Damien harnessed these challenging experiences in setting up the Spéire Nua project. The authors discuss Spéire Nua's foundational elements, including a positive disclosure model, peer mentoring and its empowerment approach to social rehabilitation. The article concludes that Damien and Spéire Nua's efforts to innovate in the area of criminal record disclosure, collaborating with other actors in civil society, academia and state bodies, represents a valuable example of lived-experience policy entrepreneurship.
- Subjects
MENTORING; CRIMINAL justice policy; CRIMINAL records; DISCLOSURE; POLITICAL entrepreneurship; CRIMINAL convictions
- Publication
Irish Probation Journal, 2023, Vol 20, p149
- ISSN
1649-6396
- Publication type
Article