Ian O'Donnell is Professor of Criminology at University College Dublin. He is the author of Justice, Mercy, and Caprice: Clemency and the Death Penalty in Ireland and Prisoners, Solitude, and Time. He is also the co-author of Crime Control in Ireland: The Politics of Intolerance. He was previously director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust and research officer at the Oxford University Centre for Criminology.