Newsletter
September 2018
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Celso Manata
Director General of Reintegration and Prison Services, Portugal
EuroPris Board Member since June 2018
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What benefits do you see being linked to an organisation such as EuroPris?
There are several benefits to being a member of EuroPris, such as the opportunity to discuss with other members different approaches for similar problems, to share the findings of different international projects, to benefit from the outputs of the most recent academic researches and to be always updated regarding new technological solutions, among others. Last but not least, through this network we have more visibility, and for that reason it’s easier to present our needs and challenges at a political level and to ask for more support, both to the relevant national and international political stakeholders and the European funding bodies.
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Feature article:
Her Majesty´s prison estate is now smoke free
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Earlier this year Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) concluded one of its most challenging projects when the final two closed prisons in England & Wales went smoke free, bringing the total number to 103 closed smoke free sites – the largest smoke free prison estate in Western Europe. The project was rolled out against a background of operating difficulties, including increasing custody risks, population pressures and use of psychoactive substances.
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Register now! Workshop on Foreign Nationals in Prison and Probation
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The workshop on Foreign Nationals in Prison and Probation taking place on
9-10 October
will be open for registration until
2 October.
It is arranged by the joint EuroPris/CEP expert group and brings together European practitioners, policy makers, voluntary groups and universities to discuss international resettlement practices, specific challenges in the management of foreign prisoners and probationers and what statistics tell us about foreign offenders in Europe.
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Upcoming workshop on Prison Work and Vocational training
The preparations continue for the European Prison Regime Forum in
November
. A close collaboration between the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency and EuroPris will guarantee a well-balanced program with an optional visit to a Dutch prison. The main themes will be successful reintegration, how to realize continuity and how to measure outcomes. The Forum will take place at the Spanish Court, in
The Hague, Netherlands
on
28-29 November.
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Correctional Research Symposium – presentations available
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The joint EuroPris/ICPA Correctional Research Symposium (CRS) took place on 9-10 May in Prague. Presentations from the CRS are now available on the conference website:
https://icpa.ca/crs2018
A personal account of Michelle Shelley, a Canadian PhD student, capturing her experiences and what she gained from the presentations and discussions at the event can be found
here.
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2nd CJP Summer course: Radicalisation and Violent Extremist offenders
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At the beginning of July, 53 participants from 15 European countries took part in the Summer course on Radicalisation and Violent Extremist offenders (VEO), organised by the Criminal Justice Platform (EuroPris, CEP, EFRJ) and hosted by the Centre of Legal Studies and Specialised Training in
Barcelona
. The aim of the Summer Courses is to examine key practice issues, inspire new thinking, promote cross-fertilisation and build new networks. In three groups the participants discussed the characteristics of VEO, alternatives to detention and a restorative approach to violent extremism. The presentations of this event have been shared with the participants only, but the workshop reports are available on the
website
.
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Highlights from EuroPris' Knowledge management System
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Every week EuroPris received queries from member countries and in this section we will present five KMS reports from the last months:
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Important progress for the European Prison Information System - EPIS
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EuroPris has entered an agreement with the University of Lausanne to link EPIS data with the Council of Europe’s SPACE initiative. The purpose is to create a more comprehensive and interactive database of prison information. In addition, progress has been made in the dialogue with the European Council and DG Justice of the European Commission to involve EPIS as part of the European e-Justice Action Plan 2019-2023. The European Council issued a recommendation to Member States via the national correspondents of the Working party on e-Law for submission of their prison data to the EuroPris EPIS system.
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AGM presentations and Annual Report
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At this year´s Annual General Meeting several presentations were made by EuroPris expert groups, as well as by France, Croatia and Ireland that presented pressing issues in their countries. Presentations from the expert groups are now available on the
website
. During the meeting, the 2017 Annual Report of EuroPris was approved. Please see the report now in a new and more accessible layout with each chapter being introduced with an executive summary. Click here to
download the report
.
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A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management - New Handbook for Prison Staff
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Recently the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR) released the 3
rd
edition of their handbook on human rights approaches to prison management. The Handbook is based on the internationally agreed standards for the use of imprisonment and conditions of detention and it provides guidance for prison staff as to their implementation. The 3rd edition has been updated to take account of a number of new international and regional standards, including the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), as well as developing case law concerning the use of imprisonment.
The Handbook can be downloaded
here.
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Dance prison challenge accepted by Belgium
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Earlier this year we wrote about Vanaja prison in Finland who invited other (female) prisons around the world to a dance challenge. The results of the Vanaja dance project can be seen
here
.
Now Belgium has picked up the challenge! Female prisons in Flanders and Brussels will be involved and the project will be coordinated by De Rode Antraciet, a non-profit expert organisation for implementing both sport and culture within the prison sector. Read more about De Rode Antraciet
here.
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"I have learned that my biggest weapon is my tongue – daring to talk about the things I think about, about what is going on, how I feel," says Jules Rasoelbaks, former prisoner and now coordinator at
De Hoop
, a rehabilitation center based in Dordrecht in the Netherlands that helps people with a drug addiction or mental health issue reintegrate into society. He is selected for
UEFA’s #EqualGame campaign
where they focus on people who are examples of how football promotes inclusion, accessibility and diversity.
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New report about communicable diseases
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What are the most effective ways to prevent and control communicable diseases in prison settings?
In their joint public health guidance the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) present the evidence on active case finding as a key measure to diagnose communicable diseases early. The two agencies advise to actively offer testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV to all people in prison and to conduct universal testing for tuberculosis at prison entry. Read more
here
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Global Prison Trends 2018
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Prison Reform International (PRI) recently published the 4th edition of Global Prison Trends which identifies topical developments and challenges in criminal justice and prison policy and practice. Topics addressed are trends in the use of imprisonment, prison populations and developments and challenges in prison management.
Read more here
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Save the date – Rescaled conference 10-11
April 2019 in Brussels
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RESCALED wants to thoroughly reform detention in Europe. Prisons should be replaced by detention houses: small-scaled, differentiated and embedded in their immediate environment and community. By organising confinement in detention houses instead of prisons, it can better align with re-integration and restoration. Prisoners stay part of and connected with society. Society learns to deal with normalised detention forms and prisoners. Restorative Justice Netherlands is hosting the conference. Find more information about the conference
here
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Renewal of family relations expert group
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The EuroPris workshop on Family relations marked the end of the two years’ work of the expert group on this topic. The group produced a comprehensive
Best Practice Collection
available on the EuroPris website. Since the
Council of Europe Recommendation on Children of Imprisoned Parents CM/RC (2018)5
was adopted in April 2018, EuroPris decided to start a new Family relations group in 2019 to support European Prison Services in the implementation of this recommendation. The new group will again closely cooperate with Children of Prisoners Europe. The call for nominations for this group will be published at the end of 2018.
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ICT workshop in Stockholm – presentations and report
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Smart Prisons, Prison Statistics and Implementation of GDPR were some of the topics of this year’s ICT workshop that took place
22-24 May in Stockholm. In case you missed it, please find the presentations and the report
here
.
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R2PRIS - final conference and updated website
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The International Conference “R2PRIS Radicalisation Prevention in Prisons” took place in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 3
rd
of July, hosted by Innovative Prisons Systems and Beira Interior University in collaboration with the Portuguese Reinsertion and Prison Service. The conference was attended by over sixty participants from seventeen countries and focused especially on the R2PRIS approach to radicalisation prevention in prisons; assessment tools and the R2PRIS training programme. The project website is now updated with the latest information about training dates and introductions to the different tools.
http://www.r2pris.org/
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Coming up - MenACE final conference
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Back to back with the National Palliative Care Conference in Romania the MenACE project will host its final conference presenting the results of the project: a state of the art report and a training course for prison staff.
The report is a literature review focusing on topics of mental health care with an emphasis on suicide -, aging, and palliative care in European prisons.
T
he focus of the training was showing the staff from MenACE partner countries on how to deal with mental health and suicide prevention, geriatrics and palliative care in prisons.
T
he event will take place
in
Brasov on 18 October.
More information will soon be available on the project website
http://www.menace-project.org/
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European Penitentiary Training Academies
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In October 2017 a project started for the European Penitentiary Training Academies (EPTA), funded by the European Commission. France, Ireland, Poland, Sweden and EuroPris are the main project partners on behalf of EPTA, with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee in the lead. The project aims at strengthening and professionalizing this staff training network within Europe to promote the cross-border sharing of training contents and methodologies. Within the project three expert groups will work on specific subjects, which will be selected in the coming weeks. The project will also finance the construction of a professional website and support to the organisation of the annual EPTA conference.
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Foreign Nationals in Prison & Probation workshop
(Read more)
9-10 October - The Hague, Netherlands
18 October - Brasov, Romania
21-27 October - Montreal, Canada
28-29 November - The Hague, Netherlands
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European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EUROPRIS)
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EuroPris
P.O. Box 13635
2501 EP The Hague
Netherlands
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