At the EuroPris secretariat we are closely following the developments around the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Starting point for our events and activities is the official governmental health advice of the country where the event is organized. We have canceled three meetings of expert groups, postponed the Correctional Research Symposium and we will continue to make adjustments and inform participants when necessary. In this newsletter, we announce future events for June and later. We are of course aware that these events may have to be postponed or altered, depending on how the situation develops. Registrations are open, but subject to changes, and we will not charge any fees for cancelations in relation to COVID-19.
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COVID-19 protocols in prisons
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EuroPris is collecting protocols, regulations and other steps that European prison services are taking in relation to the COVD-19 emergency. An earlier KMS question about this has been answered by 13 EuroPris members and can be found
here
. In addition, we created a page on our website where we will share measures taken by prison services. If you have any information to share, please send this to us by
secretariat@europris.org
. We prefer to receive information in English, but if a translation is not available we also welcome information in other languages.
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3
rd
Correctional Research Symposium - Postponed!
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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 further notice.
To read further about the event, proceed to the
CRS website
.
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9th EuroPris Annual General Meeting - Registration open
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This year the Irish Prison Service will host the EuroPris Annual General Meeting and Conference on the 8
th
of June in Dublin, Ireland. As in previous years, the EuroPris events precedes the Council of Europe Conference CDPPS starting on the 9th of June. As the event is only open to the 34 EuroPris members, an official invitation has been sent to Heads of Service. Further information about the event and registration links are now available on the EuroPris website.
For registration and more information, click
here
.
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CJPE Summer Course - Responses to Sexual Violence
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The Criminal Justice Platform Europe (CJPE) will organise its 4th International Criminal Justice Summer Course in Barcelona (7-10 July 2020). The theme chosen for this edition of the Summer Course is “Responses to sexual violence”. The Summer Course will be a combination of workshops, plenary sessions and study visits, bringing together participants with a background in prisons, probation and restorative justice from a variety of European countries.
Registrations are now open and accessible through this
link
.
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ICT Workshop - Save the date
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EuroPris organizes a workshop on ICT in Prison every two years. After a successful edition in Stockholm in 2018, the next workshop will take place from
9 – 11 September
in
Vienna
,
Austria
, kindly hosted by Austrian Ministry of Justice. A call for papers will be send out in the coming weeks. For now please mark this date in your agenda.
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This year the EPTA Annual Conference will be hosted by the Training Center of the Slovakian General Directorate of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard in
Bratislava, Slovakia
on
28-29 September 2020
.
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The EuroPris expert group on the transfer of foreign national prisoners was established in 2012 to assist members with the implementation of European Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA and examine lessons that could be learned through shared exchange of information. Over the years, the expert group has convened in different formations and sought to share the recommendations of best practice amongst other EuroPris members and European Union Member States.
The 2020 expert group meeting will be hosted at The
Leuven Institute, Leuven, Belgium on 23 and 24 September 2020
and will be attended by representatives of the authority responsible for the transfer of foreign national prisoners which include national prison services, Ministry of Justice, Judges and Prosecutors. The objectives of the meeting is to discuss practical issues and solutions to support Member States in using the Framework Decision and transferring prisoners to their countries of nationality or residence.
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Ángel Luis Ortiz González
General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions of Spain
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What are in your opinion the required attributes and qualifications of someone wanting to be a prison officer?
''Working in a prison requires the important knowledge that, according to article 25.2 of the Spanish Constitution, the main objective of our penitentiary system is the re-education and re-socialisation of inmates. Achieving this aim is only possible if, as professionals, we respect the fundamental rights of people serving sentences in prison”.
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New guide on European Court of Human Rights case law on prisoner’s rights
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On 30 January, an updated guide on the European Court of Human Rights case law relating to prisoners’ rights was published on the Council of Europe website. From the introduction of the guide: “The Court is frequently called upon to rule on complaints alleging a violation of different Articles of the Convention related to the treatment of prisoners as well as restrictions on or interferences with their rights. The Court has developed abundant case-law determining the nature and scope of prisoners’ rights under the Convention and the duties of the domestic authorities as regards the treatment of prisoners. The present Guide provides an overview of the Court’s case-law related to prisoners’ rights. The Guide contains a transversal analysis of the Court’s case-law, taking into account all relevant provisions of the Convention related to prisoners’ rights.”
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Call for contributions – feature articles
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Did your service accomplish something recently? Or has your research impacted on prison practice? The EuroPris community wants to know about it!
In each newsletter we give room for a 2-4 page feature article describing solutions to practical problems, recent research and in-depth analysis of common prison challenges. We want to encourage you to send us ideas for articles to
secretariat@europris.org
for publication during 2020.
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Project launch -
European Prison Officers for the 21st century
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On February 13
th
and 14
th
, a new project in which EuroPris participates was launched is Lisbon, Portugal. Across Europe, there are a variety of challenges linked to the training and education of prison officers. The PO 21 project (Prison Officers for the 21st century) aims to tackle the urgent need to agree on the initial and continuous vocational education and training that should be provided to prison officers in the future, regarding learning objectives, content, length of the training courses and recognition of competences that may foster mobility throughout the European Union. Therefore, the project seeks to create a sectoral platform working towards the prospective development of a professional role (the necessary knowledge, skills and competences); the identification of skills needs, the development of training curricula and respective recognition mechanisms and its deployment.
For more information about the project, please visit the
website
.
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EPTA Website & KMS are now operational
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The
EPTA website
is live and running since January 2020. It is now possible for EPTA members to share information through its own Knowledge Management System (KMS). Answers from European penitentiary training academies are placed in
reports here
. Check out the first EPTA KMS report
Training on Nelson Mandela Rules for prison staff
enquired by OSCE’s office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
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ICT & Real Estate: Expert Group meeting reports now available
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Two expert groups published reports of their most recent meetings:
The EuroPris expert group on ICT
in prisons met in Vienna, Austria, in November 2019. Best practices were shared on topics such as telemedicine, payments in prisons, videoconferencing, cloud data protection, and IT Education. The report can be found
here
.
The EuroPris expert group on Real Estate and Logistics
met in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2019. At the meeting, each member was provided with an opportunity to update colleagues on developments within their own jurisdictions and to raise questions for help or advice from other experts within the group. The report can be found
here
.
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EuroPris meeting with European Commissioner for Justice
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On March 2
nd
, EuroPris president Romain Peray and executive director Kirsten Hawlitschek had a fruitful meeting with the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. They discussed pre-trial detention, prison overcrowding and radicalization issues.
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Highlights from EuroPris Knowledge Management System
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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:
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Children of Prisoners (COPE) Conference - Registration open
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Registration is now open for COPE’s 2020 international conference “
Time to Act, How to Act: Cross-sectoral work for children with an imprisoned parent
”, hosted by Exodus, to be held in Leiden, the Netherlands on Friday 12 June, 2020.
Registration is free, however please note that there are a limited number of places, so be sure to sign up as quickly as possible.
To register and find out more information
click here.
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Child friendly version of CoE recommendation concerning children with imprisoned parents
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After the adoption of Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member States concerning children with imprisoned parents in April 2018, organisations across Europe worked with children, including their voices to make this milestone document more accessible. This set of European guidelines is designed to help encourage action, as well as being a useful resource for children, parents and professionals, to better support children with a parent in prison, advocate for and promote their rights. The document is available in English and is currently being translated into Dutch, French, Polish and Bulgarian.
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The 3rd International Correctional Research Symposium -
Management and well-being of correctional staff
International Criminal Justice Platform - Summer Course -
Responses to sexual violence
7-10 July 2020 - Barcelona, Spain (
Read more)
ICT Workshop
9-11 September - Vienna, Austria
(
More details will follow soon)
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- Interagency Cooperation Workshop Report - View report here
- Real Estate and Logistics Workshop Report - View report here
- Review of European Prison Education Policy and Council of Europe Recommendation (89) 12 on Education in Prison - View report here
- Information Leaflet on processing prisoner transfers within Europe - View here
- RAN/EuroPris Staff Training Collection (2018) - View collection here
- Updated State of Play: EU Framework Decisions 909; 947; 829;
- Competent Authorities for Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2009/829/JHA;
- Country factsheets on prison sentence execution - View here
- Designing for Rehabilitation Report - View report here
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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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