DR KEVIN WARNER – BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
1. Personal Details
Born 5th June 1947, Cork, Ireland
Email: kevinwarner47@gmail.com
2. Education and academic qualifications
University College Cork (1965-1969): BA (Hons, 2:1) in English and Economics. Higher
Diploma in Education.
London School of Economics (1969-1970): M.Sc. in Economics, specialising in the economics
of poor countries and their development.
Manchester College of Education (April-June, 1975): one term full-time training as a
remedial teacher.
University of Liverpool (1983): MA in Education, mainly by research into adult literacy.
California State University San Bernardino (March-July 1995): Fulbright Scholar, studying
Californian penal institutions and correctional education.
University College Dublin (2009): PhD. Thesis: Resisting the New Punitiveness? Penal Policy
in Denmark, Finland and Norway.
3. Employment/Professional activity
1970-1979: Teacher in secondary and comprehensive schools, and in an adult education
college, in Ireland and England.
National Co-ordinator of Prison Education, in the Department of Justice/Irish Prison
Service, 1979 – 2009. (Retired December 2009). This involved developing, in conjunction
with education bodies from the community, prison education services (which had only a
marginal role in prisons in 1979) so that they became by far the most substantial structured
activity in which Irish prisoners participated.
Extensive involvement in prison education and general penal issues at international level:
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Chairperson of the Council of Europe Expert Group on prison education, 1984-9. Main
author of the Council of Europe’s Recommendation and memorandum, R89(12),
Education in Prison (available on www.epea.org).
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Founder member of the European Prison Education Association (EPEA), and its first
Chairperson, 1991-96. Board member of US-based Correctional Education Association
(CEA), 1998-2002.
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Published a wide range of papers on prison education and penal policy, in Europe and
North America.
Since retirement from the public service in December 2009, engaged in research and
writing relating to prison education, penal policy and prison conditions, including
contributing substantially to the policy paper of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, The
Irish Prison System: Vision, Values, Reality, 2012 (available on www.jcfj.ie) and co-editing
(with Eoin Carroll) Re-imagining Imprisonment in Europe: Effects, Failures and the Future
(Dublin: Liffey Press, 2014).
Appointed adjunct lecturer in the School of Applied Social Science, University College
Dublin, in September 2012 (due to run to August 2017). Occasional lecturer at UCD and NUI
Maynooth. Board member of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) from 2012, and member of
Executive Committee of Irish Prison Education Association (IPEA) from 2013.
[See separate section on publications and research]