Newsletter
November 2017
EuroPris Interview
Major General, Dr. Tamás Toth, Hungarian Prison Service
EuroPris : What is your opinion on the role of women in the European correctional field?

Tamás Toth : There is little talk about women working in the correctional field, although they do an excellent job in the prisons. Every third employee at the Hungarian Prison Service is female, which means more than 3 000 people, precisely 3 173 people, based on today’s data, out of 9 000.

Our female colleagues engage themselves in every field of the professional work at the Hungarian Prison Service, at the same time they excel in reintegration officer positions. Ladies usually have an extraordinary empathic skill and they are also good at communication. This is especially true in case of our colleagues who prove their abilities on a daily basis.   

Featured Article – Good reasons for treating ADHD in prison
Lena Lundholm , PhD and clinical psychologist, has over the past ten years been involved in research and development concerning ADHD, substance abuse and the relation to crime. She is now Section Manager in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and will be one of the speakers at the EuroPris and CEP workshop on Mental Health in Prison and Probation in December.
 
In this issue she describes Swedish frontline experience and international research evidence of assessing and treating ADHD in prison. ADHD seem to be one of the drivers behind anti-social behaviour, particularly for violent behaviour and drug abuse.

EuroPris News
2 nd International Correctional Research Symposium

After the first successful edition of the Correctional Research Symposium earlier this year, EuroPris and ICPA in collaboration with the Czech Prison Service have decided to organize a second edition in Prague on 9 th and 10 th of May 2018.
 
Family relations workshop - Call for proposals for presentations
After two years of fruitful exchange and the publication of a comprehensive Good Practice Collection , the EuroPris Family relations expert group will come to a closing with a workshop on 11 & 12 April 2018 in Vienna . The experts of our group have interesting developments to share. But we also know that many more good practices exist in other European countries, that were not involved in the group and we would like to invite you to present them at our workshop. Please send your proposals for presentations to [email protected].
Mental health – workshop in Dublin
EuroPris and Confederation of European Probation (CEP) will organise a 1,5 day workshop on the  6th and 7th of December  on Mental Health issues in Prison and Probation. The workshop is kindly hosted by the Irish Probation Service in Dublin.
 
Radicalisation workshop – Call for proposals for presentations
Building on the valuable exchange at the ‘closed door’ workshop (for prison experts only) on the issue of violent extremism and radicalisation, EuroPris is organizing the next workshop in February 2018 in Brussels, Belgium . This workshop will be linked to a European Commission event with a similar focus. EuroPris plans to discuss latest developments in relation to dispersement or separation of radicalized prisoners; reintegration challenges for foreign fighters/returnees; and multi-agency cooperation and sharing of data. If you would like to contribute to the workshop please mail [email protected]  
Vocational training in focus at the European Prison Regime Forum
EuroPris is organising a workshop together with the Italian Department of Penitentiary Administration on  21-24 November  in Rome, Italy. This year the European Prison Regime Forum will focus on  Vocational training and Reintegration . Prison Services can present and discuss their best practices in this field. The Forum will also include moderated discussions about prison work – who is in charge? How relevant is the type of work for the prisoner? Earning model for prisons or prisoners?

Workshop report about Risk and Needs Assessment 
On the 12-13 October EuroPris held a workshop in Brussels on an issue that is a challenge for most correctional agencies, risk and needs assessment. Experts and researchers met and learned more about the latest evidence in the field. Ethical issues were addressed, as well as specific risk assessments for women, sexual offenders and violent extremist offenders.

EuroPris resources highlighted in COPE journal
One purpose of EuroPris is to enhance transparency and to facilitate the sharing of information among its members. European Prison Information System (EPIS) is a database for providing European prison data for European prison agencies. Under the EPIS umbrella there are sub-components such as KMS, the Knowledge Management System, which provide the opportunity to request and gather information on specific topics relevant to prison services. In the last issue of European Journal of Parental Imprisonment EuroPris co-workers Fraser Bryans and Vikki Elliott describe the potential of EPIS and KMS for different purposes.

Other News 
European Penitentiary Training Academies
This year the Annual Conference of the European Penitentiary Training Network (EPTA) took place in Switzerland , from 19th to 22th September 2017 . The meeting, organized by the Swiss Prison Staff Training Centre, gathered 48 participants and representatives from 20 European Penitentiary Academies. 

Expanding the restorative imagination 
In June 2018 the European Forum for Restorative Justice arranges the 10 th International EFRJ Conference in Tirana, Albania . EFRJ welcomes practice oriented presentations and training sessions. Deadline for submitting papers is on 7 January 2018 .

For more information, click here: www.euforumrj.org/events/efrj-conference-2018/
Unique mix of inmates, prison staff and professional soccer players in international tournament
On 22 September 2017 , the Norwegian prison Norgerhaven in the Netherlands hosted an international football tournament. The event was a great success and 12 teams consisted of (ex-) detainees, staff, homeless people and even a few famous former professional football players. The Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Ireland were represented and the purpose of the tournament was to fraternize, activate and connect people in an extra-ordinary event.

Transition management in Swiss online dossier
The Swiss Prison Staff Training Centre has created a thematic dossier about transition management. It contains both research evidence and practical examples from around Europe. It is available in three languages (German, French and English):
 
English  
German  
European Prison Education Association
This week EPEA will have the Training Conference in Vienna on 16-19 November . Unfortunately all prison visits are already fully booked, but registration for the conference is still possible:

 
Apart from a variety of workshops and presentations the General Council is also to be held during the conference. Members are invited to prepare for and participate in this important meeting.

More information is to be found at: http://www.epea.org/
EuroPris Expert Groups
Real Estate and Logistics
A new expert group on Real Estate & Logistics has started its work in September this year with a meeting in Ghent, Belgium . The participating experts are from Northern Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Slovenia, Turkey, England, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway. The group discussed issues like sustainable prison design, the well-being prison and the use of IP solutions in operational prisons. View presentations here.

The experts decided to work on two reports in the coming year: design of prisons for women and a review of academic literature / evidence based design. One additional expert could still join the group – any interest can be expressed until 31 December to [email protected]  
Project News
R2PRIS - training modules under development
Entering in its last year of implementation, the R2PRIS – Radicalisation Prevention in Prisons project is reaching some important milestones. Having started with a solid literature review, the project is now finishing a screening tool set that will help prison staff of different levels to detect vulnerable and radicalised inmates. As part of the project’s goals prison staff participated in the first joint staff short-term training in Lisbon during the last week of September, followed by a similar session for Dutch speaking Belgian staff in Brussels in October.

The next session is planned for French speaking participants in Belgium on December 7 th .

FORINER - Final Conference 2017
In December 2017 , the FORINER project will come to an end. To ensure that important steps are taken to provide more and better distance education to foreign national prisoners in Europe, on  28 November 2017 , in Brussels, the FORINER team will share the project results with partners, stakeholders, policy makers and practitioners. It will be a proud moment to share the culmination of all the hard work that has gone into the project over the last 24 months.

MenACE – 2 nd project meeting
Mental Health, Aging and Palliative Care in Prisons (MenACE) held its second project meeting on 21-22 September in Lisbon, Portugal . In order to have more information included in the first report, an overview of the project's three main topics – State of the Art and Best Practices Review – the partnership decided to collect more data about staff training/prevention programs already developed/implemented in partner countries. 

Upcoming Events
EPEA Conference - Beyond Frontiers: Challenges. Opportunities. Aspirations
16-19 November - Vienna, Austria ( Read more )

International Restorative Justice Week
19-26 November - Europe ( Read more )

European Prison Regime Forum Workshop - Vocational Training and Reintegration
21-24 November - Rome, Italy ( Read more )

FORINER Final Conference
28 November - Brussels, Belgium ( Read more )

Workshop on Mental Health
6-7 December - Dublin, Republic of Ireland ( Read more )
Document Library
 
1. Updated State of Play: EU Framework Decisions  909947829;
2.  Competent Authorities for Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and
2009/829/JHA;
3. Information on Prison Conditions in EU Countries - View here
4. Real Estate & Logistics Expert Group, 25-26 September, Brussels, Belgium - Download Part 1, Download Part 2
5. Risk and Needs Assessment workshop 12-13 October - Download Presentations & Report
6. Family Relations Expert Group Report - Good Practice Collection Download
European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EUROPRIS)
EuroPris
P.O. Box 13635
2501 EP The Hague
Netherlands