EuroPris Special Edition Newsletter

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EuroPris

SPECIAL EDITION NEWSLETTER

Next opportunity to apply for the EuroPris Prison Achievement Award starting in January 2023

Appreciation to all the 24 applicants from 2022:

Castelo Branco Prison - Portugal

Centre Penitenciari LLedoners - Catalonia

Centre Penitenciari Puig de les Basses - Spain

Cyprus Prison

Education behind Foreign Prison Bars Foundation

Estabelecimento Prisional de Torres Novas - Portugal

General Directorate of Prison Affairs - Catalonia

Halden Prison - Norway

Hämeenlinna Smart Prison - Finland

HMP Five Wells - England and Wales

Irish Prison Service

Jirice Prison - Czech Republic

Justizvollzugsanstalt Heinsberg Prison - Germany

Olaine Prison - Latvia

P.I. Veenhuizen - Netherlands

Penitentiaire Inrichting Middelburg - Netherlands

Pfäffikon Prison - Switzerland

PI Alphen aan den Rijn - Netherlands

Prison of Brians 2 - Catalonia

Remand Prisons - England and Wales

Shelton Abbey Open Centre - Ireland

Tallinn Prison - Estonia

Tartu Prison - Estonia

Viru Prison - Estonia

Looking Back at the Winners of 2022

(From left to right: Olivia Rope, Justina Dzienko, Marie-Anne de Groot, Erik Blaauw)

Looking back on the Prison Achievement Award 2022, Olivia Rope, the Chair of the Jury reflects on the Award and the selection process:

"The call for applications for the first EuroPris Prison Achievement Award attracted 24 entries. Thank you to all the candidates. There is a wealth of good practice initiatives across Europe that have been developed and successfully implemented many, forging new partnerships, and tackling longstanding problems with new ideas. The quality of the applications was outstanding.

We wanted to declare that every application had won, as indeed they are all winners in achieving change for people in prison. The diversity of our ratings and our shortlists demonstrated how difficult it was to decide on just one or a few. Long discussions, using an average of our rating system which was based on specific criteria. The jury decided to select the top 5 applications, and one of them would be the main winner.

The winner of the Prison Achievement Award 2022 is the Veenhuizen prison in the Netherlands, Innovation Lab - a unique collaboration between Veenhuizen prison and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

They were selected because of the unique and successful collaboration putting prisoners on an equal level as a colleague and student, with students from the university, that tackle the harms of imprisonment on children of prisoners.

They came up with products and research to support changes to make prisons more child-friendly, adopting the ‘whole family approach’ which recognises that programmes and measures need to take account of the ‘ripple effect’ a prison term has on the circle around the person detained. It is sustainable, impactful and there are many beneficiaries – through opening up prison to university students, stigma and discrimination is tackled. Children of prisoners benefit from the fruits of the innovation lab. Staff benefit through increased knowledge of the critical value of fostering prisoners’ relationships with their children as part of rehabilitation. Prisoners involved to date benefit greatly from seeing the value of their work, building their skills and changes of employment when released.

It is an outstanding example of what can be done when thinking of the box and working with other stakeholders."

Olivia Rope, Executive Director of Penal Reform International and Chair of the Award Jury presented the winners at the Annual General Meeting on 20 June 2022 in Sevilla, Spain.

Top 5 Winners

Update from Veenhuizen Prison

This year the 'Innovation Lab' at Veenhuizen Prison was awarded as the winner of the EuroPris Prison Achievement Award 2022. We asked the winners what were the most recent developments since they received the award. One of their recent projects has been on the website where they will collect best practices regarding child-focused work in Dutch prisons. It will be officially launched in January 2023. In their article, they share their experience on how they involve students from an applied sciences university in their innovation lab and the different research that they are conducting. Some of these students are carrying out comparative research in comparing good practices regarding child-focused prison practice, involving Parc prison (Wales), Cork prison (Ireland), Enner Mark prison (Denmark) and Veenhuizen prison (Netherlands). For this research, they are interested to have more prison services across Europe be involved in this research. Click on the link below to read the full article about the Innovation Lab, and how prisons in Europe can get involved in their research.

Click here to read the full article

Marie-Anne de Groot (Prison Veenhuizen) and Eric Blaauw (Hanzehogeschool Groningen) received the Prison Achievement Award 2022 at the EuroPris Annual General Meeting in Sevilla, Spain.

Below are descriptions of the achievements from the shortlisted candidates:

Pfäffikon Prison - Switzerland

Reinventing pre-trial detention in Zurich - how a heavily criticised remand prison became a path-breaking institution

Before the reorganisation, the cell doors in pre-trial detention at Pfäffikon prison, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, were closed for 23 hours a day for the majority of the detainees. With an extraordinary effort, the team of Pfäffikon prison revolutionised the running of a remand prison in Switzerland within a short time in demanding circumstances.

Olaine Prison - Latvia

The Addiction Centre of Olaine prison focuses on the implementation of social rehabilitation

The Addiction Centre in Latvia is described as a "Laboratory for Positive Change" because the new concept of execution of sentences implemented leads to significant positive changes in all areas of the sentenced prisoners' lives, thus empowering participants to manage their lives better and, upon release, no longer allow substance abuse to have a negative impact on their lives.

Castelo Branco Prison - Portugal

Involve prisoners in the development of ICT devices to assist disabled people

The students of a professional course of Information Technology (IT) at the prison school in Castelo Branco (Portugal) developed a prototype for an Adaptive Console, in order to respond positively to the challenge, set out by the +Power Project. The project aims to share interactive digital educational resources and their supporting technologies, to assist disabled people through the recycling of computer materials, promote the reintegration of the prisoner, social inclusion, and volunteering of all those who wish to associate themselves with a cause of humanistic values.

Jirice Prison - Czech Republic

Jirice Open Prison, an imitation of life outside prison

The project was established to create an open prison that prepares inmates for life in the community with the main focus on abilities and skills to assess, plan and make decisions about everyday life tasks and issues. The Open Prison imitates a life outside the prison: employment, duties after return from work, ensuring everyday functioning of home, and effective spending of leisure time. The Open Prison concept combines innovative forms of treatment of convicts, an enhanced environment, and elements of zootherapy.