Pia Puolakka - Smart Prisons Project - Creating A Learning Environment For A Life Without Crime

Ms. Pia Puolakka is Project Manager of the Smart Prison Project (https://www.europris.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pia-Puolakka-Smart-Prisons-Finland.pdf), within the Criminal Sanctions Agency, Finland (https://www.rikosseuraamus.fi/en/index.html), of the Central Administration Unit.

The Criminal Sanctions Agency is responsible for the enforcement of sentences in Finland. It operates under the direction of the Ministry of Justice and implements the criminal policy defined by the Ministry (https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/frontpage).

Ms. Puolakka has been working for the Criminal Sanctions Agency since 2012 where she originally started as a prison psychologist, and since 2017 she has been working in the Central Administration, where she first worked as a senior specialist responsible for rehabilitative services including program work, family work, and psychological and spiritual services in prisons.

In 2018 Ms. Puolakka was appointed as the Project Manager of the Smart Prison Project and her current post includes developing digital services for rehabilitative purposes and leading the implementation of the smart prison system.

By education Ms. Puolakka is a forensic psychologist and works also as a private psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, with degrees from University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi. She has also done further studies at Aalto University in Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization for the purposes of the current Smart Prison Project.

Ms. Puolakka is author of the book Narsistit Vankilassa (Narcissists in Prison - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56214475-narsistit-vankilassa) and the recent paper Artificial Intelligence in Prisons in 2030. An exploration on the future of Artificial Intelligence in Prisons (https://rm.coe.int/ai-in-prisons-2030-acjournal/1680a40b83).