Biography

Dr Shane BRYANS was an operational prison governor (director) in seven prisons of varying security categories in England and a director (senior civil servant) in the UK’s Home Office (Ministry of Interior) focusing on criminal justice policy for over 30 years. He has also worked as a UN, ICRC and EU short term expert on criminal justice and prison issues in: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sint Maarten, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Uganda.​His most recent full-time position (2017 to 2023) was as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s Regional Detention Advisor for Asia Pacific, where he made 83 visits to seven countries to support reform of detention places (prisons, police detention, military detention and immigration detention).

He has also spent two years as a long-term penitentiary expert in Turkey and one year as the senior advisor to the Minister of Justice in post revolution Libya. He has managed a number of projects for the International Centre for Prison Studies (Essex University, UK).​Shane has a Doctorate in Law (University of London - LSE) which focused on prisons and the criminal justice system, as well four Masters’ degrees from UK universities: LLM in International Human Rights Law (De Montfort University); MPhil in Criminology (University of Cambridge); MBA in Business Administration (Open University) and MEd in Adult Education (Sheffield university) and a bachelor’s degree in law (University of Cambridge). He was a visiting Professor at the law school of the University of Staffordshire for several years.

Shane has written and co-written five Handbooks for UNODC: Handbook on Dynamic Security and Prison Intelligence (2015); Handbook on the Management of High-Risk Prisoners (2016); and Handbook on Managing Violent Extremist Prisoners and Prevention Radicalisation to Violence in Prison (2016); Handbook on Technology in Prison Settings (2026); and Integrity Behind Bars: Guide on Corruption Risk Management in Prison Systems (2026).  He has also written a number of books on prison management and numerous training manuals, workbooks and articles on prison theory and management.