INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
WHO GOES TO PRISON:
International Developments in Structuring and Restricting the Use of Custody
28 and 29 May 2025 (morning – late afternoon),
Prague, Faculty of Law
Introduction
One of the most important question judges face is whether they should impose a prison sentence or not. Legislative bodies and sentencing commission typically guide judges, often restricting the use of custody. The scholarship on this question is underdeveloped.
If use of custody belongs to your interests, you are very warmly welcome to attend international seminar „Who goes to prison“ organized by Jakub Drápal (Charles University) and Julian V. Roberts (Oxford University).
This workshop will explore the principles governing who should be incarcerated and their practical implications. We will discuss doctrinal, comparative, and empirical perspectives from both common law and civil law systems, covering regions on both sides of the Atlantic as well as Western and Eastern Europe. The papers will be circulated in advance, so although participation is free, registration is required. Come and join us for a lively discussion!
Registration
We carefully selected 15 papers by top scholars from universities worldwide, covering topics such as sentencing thresholds and policies, the impact of imprisonment, alternatives to incarceration, and more. Each paper will be discussed in a 45-minute session.
We would like to invite all interested scholars to register bellow and join the discussion. The workshop is available for everyone without charge.
Registration closes on May 11, 2025. For registration after May 11, please contact Tomáš Knap at the following email address: tomas.knap@prf.cuni.cz
How to get around Prague?
Prague offers convenient and efficient public transportation that will get you to the workshop quickly and easily.
- Metro: Three lines – A (green), B (yellow), and C (red). The nearest station to the workshop is Staroměstská on A (green) line.
- Trams and buses: We recommend using the Právnická fakulta stop.
- Tickets: Available from ticket machines, at stops, or via the PID Lítačka app. A single ticket starts at 30 CZK and is valid for all types of transport. For easy trip planning, we recommend using the PID Lítačka app or Google Maps.
How to get to Prague?
Prague is easily accessible from all over the world:
- By Air: Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) offers direct connections to many cities. From the airport to the city center, you can take:
- Trolleybus 59 → transfer to Metro (green) A line at Nádraží Veleslavín station.
- Uber (official taxi service for Václav Havel Airport Prague).
- By Train: Direct train connections from cities such as Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Brussels, Amsterdam, Warsaw. The Main Train Station is located right in the city center.
- Night Trains to Prague:
- Brussels/Amsterdam (ES 453)
- Zurich (EC 459 Canopus)
- Budapest (EN 476 Metropol)
- Warsaw/Krakow (EN 407 Chopin/EN 442)
- Košice (EN 442 Slovakia)
- Major Cities with Train Connections to Prague Under 10 Hours:
- Vienna (approx. 4 hours)
- Munich (approx. 5.5 hours)
- Berlin (approx. 4.5 hours)
- Dresden (approx. 2.5 hours)
- Frankfurt (approx. 7 hours)
- Hamburg (approx. 6.5 hours)
- Nuremberg (approx. 3.5 hours)
- Leipzig (approx. 4 hours)
- Night Trains to Prague:
Organizers
Jakub Drápal (Charles University) and Julian V. Roberts (Oxford University)
Presenters
| Name and primary affiliation | Title of the presentation |
| Gemma Birkett (City, University of London ) | Restricting the Use of Custody Through Structured Deferred Sentencing |
| Christopher Cowley (Charles University, UCD) | Might there be a more robust role for the victim’s opinion when determining the precise sentence? |
| Isabel García Domínguez (Universidad de Salamanca) | Should poor people be imprisoned for committing minor socio-economic crimes? An empirical study of homeless people judged in Spain (years 2016-2020) |
| Jakub Drápal (Charles University) | Type A and Type B Custodial Thresholds: Hard Custodial Thresholds Set by Legislators and Soft Custodial Thresholds Defined by Judges |
| Csaba Győry (ELTE University) | Is the Custody Threshold Misplaced in Serious Financial Crimes? A Case Study of Hungary and Germany |
| Melissa Hamilton (University of Surrey) | Rethinking Imprisonment: Incorporating Dynamic Risk in Sentencing Decisions |
| Daniel Kwiatkowski & Dominik Wzorek (Jagiellonian University; Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences) | Are Prisons Reserved for Serious Offenders? Assessing the use of imprisonment in the Practice of Polish Courts |
| Tapio Lappi-Seppällä (University of Helsinki) | Regulating prison populations through sentencing strategies: Can more be less? |
| Richard L. Lippke (Indiana University) | Marginal Imprisonable Offenses |
| Niamh Maguire and Nicola Carr (Trinity College Dublin) | The Logic of Propulsion – The Problem of Sentencing Repeat Offenders to Short-Term Prison Sentences |
| Nicola Padfield (University of Cambridge) | Reviewing the custody threshold in England and Wales today |
| Mojca Plesničar, Dean Lipovac (Institute of Criminology, Ljubljana) | Who Goes to Prison for Sexual Offences? An Analysis of Sentencing Decisions in Slovenia |
| Julian V. Roberts (University of Oxford) | Sentencing Guidelines as a Means of Regulating Who Goes to Prison |
| Jesper Ryberg (Roskilde University) | When Should Offenders be Incarcerated? On Imprisonment and the Seriousness of Crimes |
| Shi Yan, Marva Goodson, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, Jessica Raskauskas, Dennis Sarpong, Cheyenne Weaver, and Beth Huebner (Arizona State University) | Who Avoids Prison by Community Program Completion? Lessons from Diversion Programs at Phoenix, USA |
Contact
If you have any question, reach out to Jakub Drápal: drapalja@prf.cuni.cz or Tomáš Knap: tomas.knap@prf.cuni.cz