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The Dominican Republic is rapidly gaining international prominence for its remarkable achievements in building a new kind of prison system – with a focus on human rights and rehabilitation, not repression. Since 2003, the Dominican Republic has developed a “New Prison Management” model, which aims to apply international principles of human rights and the United Nations Mandela Rules (the 2015 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners), as well as experiences from other countries, to the local Dominican context. This is an ongoing process of reform, which has expanded gradually but only covers part of the Dominican prison system. The older and the newer types of prisons co-exist in […]
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ICPA is one of the partners in a new project called “FAIRNESS: Implementation of the Stockholm’s Roadmap in cases of Terrorism and Radicalisation”. FAIRNESS will focus, on one side, on the practical implementation and coherence between key EU Directives composing the Stockholm’s Roadmap (particularly Directive (EU) 2016/343 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on the strengthening of certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and of the right to be present at the trial in criminal proceedings; and Directive (EU) 2016/800 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on procedural safeguards for children who are suspects or accused persons […]
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ICPA, in collaboration with the National Penitentiary Workers’ Union (SNLP) – Romania, supported a three-day workshop “Enhancing Social Dialogue: Improving Interactions Between Prison Management and Staff”. The event took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from 19-22 March 2019. Participants of the workshop were various European Trade Unions, the European Public Service Union (EPSU), and the National Penitentiary Workers’ Union (SNLP) – Romania. The aim of the workshop was to bring together prison unions from different countries, in order to discuss the social dialogue process, and to share the practices that are in place in their own administrations. A recent project of EPSU (European Public Service Trade Union) showed that many prison workers […]
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Background Following discussions at the recent African Correctional Leadership Workshop, conducted by ICPA in Namibia during April 2018, the Commissioner of Corrections of Lesotho (LCS) requested the ICPA Staff Training and Development Network (STDN) for assistance. Commissioner Mothepu later attended our Annual Conference in Montreal in October 2018 and met with STDN representatives to discuss the provision of a pro-active joint venture on upgrading and developing the prison management via the officer training curriculum. The aim of the mission was to improve the quality and content of prison officers’ training provided by the LCS, and to establish and develop the implementation and evaluation of the curricula. It was agreed a […]
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Editor’s Note: the column below is in response to a Cape Breton Post article (‘Released from prison,’ Dec. 17) which used the term ‘Free Man’ as the ‘kicker’ above the headline. A kicker, in newspaper lingo, is intended to provide readers with an overall idea of what the article is about. Examples might be politics, crime, education, etc. A recent article in your paper described an offender that had been granted parole as a “free man.” This underscored for me the lack of public understanding that exists around parole, and the important role media play in shaping public perception around it. Criminal justice stories routinely make headlines at the local, […]
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On the 16th May 2017, the ‘European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions’ published a brief article on the safety of prison officers, stating: “Thousands of prison officers across England and Wales began a 24-hour day of protest on 15 November 2016 over health and safety concerns, after negotiations with the government.” Two months later, the United States National Institute of Justice published Frank Valentino Ferdik’s (University of West Florida) and Hayden P. Smith’s (University of South Carolina) article on “Correctional Officer Safety and Wellness Literature Synthesis”. Following a comprehensive research project, both gentlemen concluded: “The health and safety concerns of correctional officers have been largely neglected […]
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In this project ICPA is partnering with: Centre for Education and Culture Trebnje, Slovenian Institute for Adult Education, European Association for Education of Adults, National Learning and Work Institute, University of Malta – Prison Education and Re-Entry Programme, Penitenciarul Baia Mare, European Prison Education Association, Department of Penitentiary Institutions of the Republic of Moldova, Creative Corrections Europe. Focusing on skills assessment, recognition, validation and development of inmates’ skills, SkillHubs aims at facilitating the smooth transition of offenders from prison into society through education. The project’s ultimate aim is the up-skilling and, particularly for those who experienced longer sentences, the re-skilling of inmates’ abilities. In order to achieve this goal, the project established some recommendations based on data collected […]
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ICPA took part in the kick-off meeting of a new project called AWARE . The gathering took place between 20 and 21 December 2018, in Bremen, Germany. Mr. Gary Hill – Chair of the Staff Training and Development Network, represented ICPA at the event. The AWARE Project is a multi-agency training for working with prisoners and former prisoners with mental health needs. AWARE’s overall objective is to train relevant staff to recognize, refer and/or treat moderate to severe mental health problems within the confines of daily prison and probation systems, and to foster better interaction between agencies working in prisons and probation on health, mental health, substance abuse and resettlement. […]
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As a country in which the political system changed 30 years ago, Romania has undergone significant improvement in the attitude toward its cultural legacy, especially the national principles towards a better future and better rights for all its citizens. Romania has become a part of the European Union, implicitly meaning that our political leadership has agreed to adhere to a whole class of European political ideals. EU standards were imposed as a new objective target for the future of the country, one that had a shade of communistic view across many past years. This difference between what was in the past, and what should be in the future should be […]
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Worldwide over half a million foreign nationals are detained abroad. Many foreign national prisoners (FNPs) encounter difficulties as a result of the language barrier. To overcome this obstacle Femke Hofstee-van der Meulen developed a picture dictionary with more than 450 colourful pictures and translation of basic words and sentences in twenty different languages. The aim of this pocket-sized booklet is to stimulate FNPs in their communication with others, to encourage them to learn a foreign language and to create awareness about prison rules and its regime. The first edition of the picture dictionary was sent to all Dutch nationals in foreign detention as a gift to thank them for their […]
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