Newsletter
June 2020
COVID-19
On the EuroPris website we created a  dedicated page  on which we continue to gather and share all regulations, protocols and approaches that European Prison Services and related organisations have drafted or taken in order to deal with the Covid-19 virus. The page is updated every day. Currently, 30 jurisdictions have shared their information. On the same page, we also share information from a mailing group of prison experts and many other relevant resources. If you have information to add to this page, please mail  [email protected] .
Prison visits: Fact Sheet
When the outbreak began, most prison services immediately suspended visits, to help protect prisoners and staff against outbreaks amongst the prison population. Most prison services have now started to implement measures and policies to facilitate either physical visits or alternatives means of contact. EuroPris drafted this  factsheet  to present an overview of the measures for in person visits. 
Covid-19: EuroPris Interview
The impact of Covid-19 on the prison community goes beyond regulations and protocols. The crisis affects people on a deep personal level and changes their daily lives. EuroPris collects human stories, to share in our network. We hope the sharing of experiences will contribute to making people feel connected. Would you like to share your story? Please send an e-mail to  Friederycke Haijer  to arrange for a telephone conversation.
Athena Demetriou
Ministry of Justice and Public Order - Department of Prisons, Cyprus
EuroPris spoke with Athena Demetriou, who has been a senior prison manager at the only prison in Cyprus since 2013. Because Cyprus is such a small country, Athena’s job has been very diverse, ranging from working with the front-line prison officers, to representing the country at the United Nations and other international forums. Athena explained that she strongly believes that prison managers cannot distance themselves from the population. “We are going through this together”. 

Upcoming Events
At the EuroPris secretariat we are closely following the developments around COVID-19. Starting point for our events and activities is the official governmental health advice of the country where the event is organized. We will make adjustments and inform participants when necessary. Please consult our website for the latest information about our other events.
Criminal Justice Webinars on Sexual Violence: Registration Open!
Instead of holding the Summer Course this year, the CJPE organizes a series of free webinars with key-experts on the topic of responses to sexual violence. The webinars will take place on 7, 8 and 9 July 2020 . Topics of the webinars are Ethics in Management and Treatment of individuals sentences for sexual offence, Better understanding of sexual abuse to create effective policy and practice and Restorative justice responses to sexual violence: How to enable safe and sensitive practice. 

For more information and registration, click  here .
ICT Workshop - Save the date
This year the ICT Workshop will take place on  29 September to 1 October in Vienna, Austria  and it will be kindly hosted by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reform, Regulation and Justice. More information will be published on our website  soon .
9th EuroPris Annual General Meeting - Rescheduled
The EuroPris Annual General Meeting and conference was scheduled to take place in Dublin on the 8 th  of June. It has been rescheduled to take place on 9 November 2020 in Strasbourg , connected to the 25th Council of Europe Conference of Directors which is also planned to take place in Strasbourg on  9-10 November 2020.

For more information, click here .
CRS - Rescheduled
The 3 rd  International Correctional Research Symposium, under the title "Motivation and well-being of correctional staff: How they matter and what can we do about it?", was scheduled to take place in Porto on 12-14 May. The symposium has been postponed until  2-4 March 2021.   

For more information click here .
Summer Course – Rescheduled 
The Summer Course, jointly organized with the Criminal Justice Platform Europe, has been postponed until July 2021 . More information will follow later. In the meantime, the organizers will host webinars on the topic of responses to sexual violence on the original dates: 7-9 July 2020 (see above).
EPRF - Rescheduled & call for papers extended
The European Prison Regime Forum which was scheduled to take place this coming fall, has been rescheduled for 13-14 April 2021 in Helsinki, Finland . We are looking forward to hosting the event there, together with the Finnish Prison Service. The new call for papers will be published soon on our website. The deadline for submissions will be extended until November 1 st . 
Juveniles & young adults in prison and probation workshop 
Call for papers - Open now
EuroPris together with CEP is organising a one-and-a-half-day workshop ( 1-2 December 2020 ) on Juveniles and Young Adult offenders in prison and probation in  The Hague, The Netherlands .
This expert workshop will address the perspective of different European experts in the field of juveniles and young adults who have committed crimes, both from interventions in the community and closed regime institutions.
If you would like to present at the workshop, please submit a short paper by using  this template  on one of the topics mentioned  here .  The deadline for submission is 15th of September 2020 . 

Other News
EPTA Annual Conference - Call for papers
This year’s annual conference will focus on crisis managing and distance learning during COVID-19. At the moment, the hosts of the conference, the Slovak General Directorate of Corps of Prison and Justice Guards welcome EPTA members to Bratislava on  28-29 September . In case of cancellation due to travelling restrictions, the hosts are exploring the possibility of holding the annual conference online. We invite EPTA members to present their experience on the above mentioned topics during the interactive workshops at the conference. Would you like to present? Fill in the  form here  by  29 June  and submit to Julia Ilyina at  [email protected] . 
EPTA Website – New features
A new feature has been developed on the EPTA website  Members’ page  where European Penitentiary Training Academies can enter information about their staff training. This function allows academies to share and exchange their training procedures. These are some of the questions asked: Which tests are included in the recruitment assessment? What does the final exam contain? Is there continuous training? 
View results from academies in the following countries:
Irish Prisons model best practice on handling COVID-19
The Irish Prison Service has submitted a paper to the World Health Organisation as a model of best practice for keeping Covid-19 out of prisons.
Currently there are 3,705 prisoners nationwide and no detainee that has been screened and tested has had a positive Covid-19 result. 
Although a number of prison staff have tested positive, the prison service said its early action and the cooperation of both its staff and inmates has prevented transmission to and between inmates.

To read further about the experience of Irish Prison Service during the COVID-19 epidemic click here .
Highlights from EuroPris Knowledge Management System
EuroPris receives queries from member countries every week, and in this section we will highlight several KMS reports from the last months. Click on the link to view each KMS report:


Upcoming Events
International Criminal Justice Platform - Summer Course -
Responses to sexual violence - WEBINARS
7-10 July 2020 - Online ( read more)

ICT Workshop
9-11 September - Vienna, Austria ( More details will follow soon)

9th EuroPris Conference & Annual General Meeting 
9 November 2020, Strasbourg, France ( read more )

Juveniles & Young adults in prison and probation Workshop
1-2 December 2020 - The Hague, Netherlands ( read more )
Document Library
  1. Interagency Cooperation Workshop Report - View report here
  2. Real Estate and Logistics Workshop Report - View report here
  3. Review of European Prison Education Policy and Council of Europe Recommendation (89) 12 on Education in Prison - View report here
  4. Information Leaflet on processing prisoner transfers within Europe - View here
  5. RAN/EuroPris Staff Training Collection (2018) - View collection here
  6. Updated State of Play: EU Framework Decisions 909; 947; 829;
  7. Competent Authorities for Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2009/829/JHA;
  8. Country factsheets on prison sentence execution - View here
  9. Designing for Rehabilitation Report - View report here
European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EUROPRIS)
EuroPris
P.O. Box 13635
2501 EP The Hague
Netherlands