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Edition 5: March 2014 - In This Issue:
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EUROPRIS INTERVIEW
Christian Schnattler
Head of Department of Prison Administration, Federal Ministry of Justice, Austria.
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In our continuous efforts to have a closer cooperation between judicial authorities in the EU, to strengthen the mutual knowledge about our systems and to reinforce mutual trust, EuroPris introduces a new section in the newsletter: interviews with General Directors of European prison systems.
In this issue, EuroPris talks with Christian Schnattler, Head of Department of Prison Administration, Federal Ministry of Justice, Austria.
EuroPris: Could you tell us about your career path? Why have you chosen to work in the prison and correctional field?
Christian Schnattler: I am gradually grown into the prison administration. My main motivation then to decide for the prison administration was the various human aspects that play an important role in this field.
How many Prison establishments do you oversee?
In Austria, there are a total of 27 prisons, of which 15 (16) court prison houses that are set up at the headquarters of the district courts' jurisdiction in criminal matters. The tasks of the 15 (16) Judicial prisoners houses are mainly... Click here to read the full interview
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EUROPRIS NEWS
EuroPris Knowledge Management System (KMS)
This system allows National Prison Administrations to contact EuroPris with a query or request for information. Respondees will have access to all responses and can collate the information as applicable to them. EuroPris has relayed questions to the European National Prison Agencies and created reports on the following topics:
- Use of cutlery in closed prisons;
- Policies on weddings and civil partnerships;
- Mother-child units in prison;
- Right to conjugal visits in EU countries;
- Access control upon entering correctional facilities;
- Mobile detection;
- Honour-related Violence and Crimes;
- Halfway Houses;
- Entrance Control Staff.
To help facilitate this type of request responses are captured via an online database. Not only does this help to capture responses in a consistent, logical way, but it will also allow us to build up a knowledgebase to share these responses for the benefit of the wider network.
If your National Prison Administration would like to relay a question(s) within the wider European network, or should you wish to enquire about past reports, please contact the EuroPris Office Manager, Rodica Popa ([email protected]).
3rd EuroPris Conference and Annual General Meeting
On 16th June 2014 the 3rd EuroPris Conference and Annual General Meeting will take place in Helsinki, hosted by the Criminal Sanctions Agency of Finland (RISE). The half-day Conference will focus on two issues that require special attention within prison settings: Restorative Justice approaches and Family relations. Based on presentations from two countries a discussion with the audience on these issues will take place.
The conference is open to all interested parties, the Annual General Meeting is only open for members, potential members and our network partners.
For the draft agenda please click here.
The EuroPris event will be followed by the Council of Europe Conference of Prison and Probation Directors on 17 -18th June and will also take place in Helsinki.
Meeting with Pussy Riot
On the 31st January 2014 EuroPris Director Kirsten Hawlitschek attended a meeting at the Dutch Prison Service with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina from the Russian group 'Pussy Riot'. Ms Tolokonnikova and Ms Alvokhina both spent two years in Russian prisons and decided upon their release to start an NGO with the aim to improve detention conditions of Russian prisons. Specifically, they would like to focus on initiating art projects or other cultural activities with prisoners. EuroPris has provided information about such activities in European countries and will support them in their search for information and contacts.
Measures for Improvement of Prison Conditions in the EU
The final seminar in a series focusing on the EU's Green Paper on Detention was organised and held by the Academy of European Law in Trier last month on 13-14th February 2014. Speakers and participants were lawyers, prison experts, NGOs, academics, prison monitoring bodies (CPT, NPM) and EU officials.
On the agenda there were presentations addressing good practices in prison management, education in prison, training of prison staff, healthcare issues and detention conditions. EuroPris' director Kirsten Hawlitschek gave a presentation on the role of EuroPris in promoting ethical and rights based imprisonment. EuroPris board member and Director General of the Romanian Prison Service, Catalin Claudiu Bejan, chaired a session on �Finding ways of better monitoring and prison management in Europe�.
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PRESS ROOM
- Italian PM Enrico Letta wins confidence vote on prison overcrowding bill [read article]
- Over 100 Romanian prisoners released after new criminal code comes into force [read article]
- Information on how the new penal code will raise Georgian penal standards [read article]
- Pilot of mobile phone blocking technology goes live in Scottish prisons [read article]
- UK Court of Appeal upholds principle of whole life prison term [read article]
- UK Government reviews young peoples deaths in custody [read article]
- Volunteers to test new Belgian prison before it opens [read article]
- Council of Europe calls for immediate improvement prison hospital facilities in Greece [read article]
- Latest London lunch: Prison food [read article]
- Recommendation of the Committee of Minister on electronic monitoring [read article]
- Irish Prison Service's annual report for 2013 [read article]
- Electronic 'jail mail' system in Scotland [read article]
- Reforms to help reduce re-offending come into force in UK [read article]
- Czech Justice Minister Helena Valkova wants to improve health care in prisons [read article]
- E-course: Women in detention. Putting Bangkok rules into practice [read]
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EUROPRIS EXPERT GROUPS
Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA - Transfer of Prisoners
Olivier Tell, the head of the DG Justice at the European Commission provided at the end of January a report on the implementation of Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2008/829/JHA. The report aims to provide a preliminary evaluation of implementation of the three Framework Decisions by Member States. Olivier Tell highlighted the importance of the implementation of these Framework Decisions and reminded the Member States of the possibility for the Commission to launch infringement proceeding for non-transposition or inadequate transposition as of 1 December 2014.
See the latest State of Play on the implementation of the EU Framework Decisions 909, 947 and 829.
The EuroPris expert group on the transfer of prisoners developed the FD 909 prisoner transfer information form. The use of this form is recommended when transferring a prisoner between member states under the Framework Decision 909.
The next EuroPris expert group meeting will be organised in September 2014 in consultation with the European Commission.
EuroPris ICT in Prisons Workshop - Last chance to register!
3-4th April 2014, Portlaoise, Ireland
In cooperation with the Irish Prison Service and Northern Ireland Prison Service, the second EuroPris ICT in Prisons workshop focuses on experts working in the ICT sector of prison and correctional services.
The workshop will address the following topics: Prisoner information management systems; Use of Biometrics; Prisoner healthcare management systems; Communications for inmates (e-mail and video); Use of mobile devices in prisons; Self-service for inmates: e-health and e-learning; Family visits by video conferencing.
FIND OUT more about the agenda and event details.
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CELL PHONES IN EUROPEAN PRISONS
March's feature article
March's feature article comes from academic Professor Martine Herzog-Evans.
This article examines the recent French ruling against the use of mobile telephones in French prisons. The French justice system has recently increased the legal seriousness of possession of a mobile telephone within a French prison.
France's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'Etat, has ruled that within prisons mobile telephones are 'Dangerous objects'. This means that the severity of the crime of possession of a mobile telephone in a French prison and the possible punishment for the offence have increased. In this article Professor Herzog-Evans conducted a small unofficial survey across different European countries as to what the different legal statuses of mobile telephones within prisons was within these jurisdictions.
Click here to view the full report.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
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19-21 March, European Prison Regime Forum, Conference, Lisbon, Portugal; - 3-4 April, ICT in Prisons, EuroPris Workshop, Portlaoise, Ireland;
- 14-17 May, Victims Support Europe, Annual Conference, Warsaw, Poland;
- 11-14 June, European Forum for Restorative Justice, Annual Conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland;
- 16 June, EuroPris Annual General Meeting and Conference, Helsinki, Finland;
- 17-18 June, Conference of Directors of Prison Administration CDAP, Council of Europe, Helsinki, Finland;
- 10-13 June, CEP Conference on Community Sanctions, Chisinau, Moldova;
- 25-27 June, European Prison Training Academy Annual Conference, Barcelona, Spain.
- 1-4 October, Policy and Quality in Education in Prison, the 8th European Conference for Directors and Co-Ordinators of Education in Prison, Tallinn, Estonia.
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 GET INVOLVED WITH EUROPRIS Would you like to see an article of yours in the next newsletter?
If you have something you would like to broadcast to a wider European audience then here's your opportunity - email your article to us for review and inclusion in our future newsletter editions and/or our website.
Would you like to share an event in the next newsletter?
If you have an event relevant for European Correctional Services you would like to disseminate to a wider European audience then email the event details to the Office Manager and it will be added to the next edition of the newsletter.
Interested in getting involved?
If you have the skills or knowledge relevant to any of our expert groups then we want to hear from you, please contact us with your details, area of expertise/knowledge and how you would like to get involved.
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CONTACT US
2501 EP The Hague
Netherlands
+31-6-2505-5692
Office Manager -
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STAY CONNECTED 
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