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EPTA Newsflash

November 2020

Flashback: EPTA Annual Conference 2020

The first online EPTA annual conference took place during two half-day sessions on 28-29 September 2020, where 74 participants from 24 countries came together to learn, share and exchange their knowledge about the EPTA project, outputs of the Special Interest Groups, managing training activities during lockdown due to Covid-19, innovative methods on remote education and examination, and much more. Presentations and the report from the conference are available here. EPTA Presidency The term for the current presidency is about to end, as EPTA has annually rotating presidency. For this reason, the current EPTA members are invited to take over the Presidency the coming year and capitalize on the newly approved project ‘Innovating together: Connecting European Penitentiary Training Academies’, which will enable to cover costs for the next Annual conference. The current presidency, Slovakian Training Center of the General Directorate of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard would be pleased to share their experience and support any EPTA member considering Presidency.  If you would like to apply, please contact Peter Neuhybel by 10 December 2020 at this email address: peter.neuhybel@zvjs.sk.

Upcoming Events

The European Prison Rules as a Standard Setter for European Prison Conditions 30.11-01.12 (Online) International hybrid conference by the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences 03-04.12 (Online) Symposium: Restorative Justice, plural and shifting borders (Online, date will be announced soon)

Highlighted News

New EPTA Project The Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) and the EPTA steering committee successfully submitted a new project proposal ‘Innovating Together: Connecting European Penitentiary Training Academies’ to the European Commission. This new project will run for 3 years starting in June 2021 and will provide for a stronger and even more sustainable network and more in-depth information sharing. The project will undertake the following activities: further development of the current ETPA website and Knowledge Management System (KMS), three annual meetings, a crisis management workshop related to innovative training methods, three cross-border training staff exchanges and a meeting between EPTA and other staff training institutions. Click here for more information about the project.

EPTA's Special Interest Groups  After the Special Interest Groups presented their preliminary results at the Annual Conference on 28 September, the EPTA Special Interest Groups have been working hard to finalize the Training Best Practices, Minimum Standards and Handbook on the topics of Leadership and Management, Dynamic Security and Managing Difficult Inmates. As the reports are in the final editing stage, they are being prepared to be translated into several EPTA languages and published on the EPTA website. Publication is planned to take place at the start of 2021. Read more about the SIGs here.

New KMS report Click below to view the latest KMS report submitted by the French National Correctional Administration Academy (ENAP) answered by 12 members: Conducting Research in Correctional Field Members' Page There has always been a large interest in how staff training is organized throughout Europe. These are the most recent contributions: Ukraine (Academy of the State Penitentiary Service) Germany (Bayerische Justizvollzugsakademie) Belgium (Training Centre for Penitentiary Staff, OCPP) Turkey Norway Not all pages are yet completed, at the moment members are still working on filling in the information. For questions about how to register and fill out the members' training form, contact Julia Ilyina at secretariat@epta.info. HELP online courses – educational platform of the Council of Europe The Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) is a platform of online courses developed by the Council of Europe. HELP offer prison-related courses such as Radicalisation Prevention, with specific modules for prison and probation officers, Managing Foreign National Prisoners (developed jointly with EuroPris), CPT Standards (Committee on the Prevention of Torture) and Prohibition of Ill-treatment. All these courses are available free of charge to any user in the HELP online platform. Click here to view updates on the HELP online courses. Research Catalogue and Training Guides from Catalonian Training Center Since 1987, the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialized Training of Catalonia has been compiling all their research in a catalogue. Click here to read more about the catalogue and how to acquire research reports. Training Guides from Catalonia – Identification of professional competences are also available online here. Working days of Czech Prison Service Academy employees A series of articles about a working day of different employees from the Czech Prison Service Academy have been published on the EPTA website. The articles are available to read here.

How and where to add content to the EPTA website?

Since the launch of the new EPTA website in 2020, the EPTA secretariat has been working on developing new features to the platform. More information has been collected and added to Member's page to learn more about each Academy. The Knowledge Management System (KMS) has been a useful tool for members to collect data. The Resources page provides space for collecting the following: Training modules/database e-learning modules Reports and presentations Would you like to collect data on a specific topic from other penitentiary staff academies? Have you recently published a new training module? Send an email to EPTA secretariat to send out a query or upload your content and share with other Training Academies.

EPTA Network | www.epta.info secretariat@epta.info

This project was funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (2014-2020). The content of this Newsflash represents only the views of the EPTA Network and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.