On Thurs 21^st July, the Irish Penal Reform Trust will hold a seminar, Prison Conditions as a Constitutional Issue: Recent Experiences from the US and Ireland. The seminar will explore potential implications of two recent court judgments in which the constitutional rights of prisoners were found to have been infringed by unacceptable prison conditions. Michael O’Higgins SC will speak on the High Court decision in Kinsella -v- Governor of Mountjoy Prison which found the detention of a man in a padded cell in Mountjoy Prison for 11 days to have violated his constitutional rights; Don Specter, Director and Sara Norman, Managing Attorney of the Prison Law Office, San Quentin, will speak on the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overcrowding in California’s prisons results in cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (This presentation will be broadcast on screen.) The event takes place on Thurs 21 July, 2011 from 5-7pm in the Distillery Building on Church Street, Dublin 7, and the seminar qualifies for CPD points (1.5 hours). It is preceded by IPRT’s Annual General Meeting, which begins 3.30pm. Full details available here.