Quarterly President’s Update | ICPA Global Community

ICPA 27th Annual Conference recordings are now available

If you attended ICPA’s 27th Annual Conference, Wellbeing in Corrections: Initiatives for Staff, Systems and Communities (Istanbul, Türkiye | 26–31 Oct 2025), thank you for helping make it a success! If you could not attend, or you want to revisit key sessions, the conference recordings are now available to watch on our website here.

I encourage you to use these resources within your teams to expand your knowledge of evidence-based correctional practice, spark conversations, and encourage one another about the important of the work you are doing.

The conference theme was not about wellbeing as a slogan, but about wellbeing as operational reality.

What you will hear in the recordings

• Wellbeing for staff: recruitment and retention, workplace safety and resilience, training and development, culture and support systems, and relationships built on respect, trust, accountability, and fairness.
• Wellbeing in systems: healthcare in corrections, designing for wellbeing, youth justice reforms, data-informed policy, sustainability, technology and AI, trauma-informed approaches, and community supervision.
• Wellbeing in communities: prison climate, re-entry and reintegration, effective probation and parole, restorative justice, and lived experience leadership.
• The Nelson Mandela Rules in action: dignity, non-discrimination, rehabilitative environments, contact with the outside world, social reintegration, cultural sensitivity, technology and innovation, and accountability.

Strategic alliance: ICPA and IJIS Institute

I am pleased to share that ICPA and the IJIS Institute have formed a strategic alliance to strengthen collaboration between corrections professionals and technology experts worldwide.

This partnership is designed to deliver practical, complementary services that meet the realities many members are navigating: increasing expectations, tighter budgets, fast-moving technology, and a rising need for secure, ethical information sharing.

The alliance focuses on four areas:

• Information sharing and best practices: creating channels for members of both organisations to exchange lessons learned and improve operational efficiency.
• Joint research and development: collaborating on projects that explore emerging technologies, assess impact, and develop standards and guidelines for technology deployment in corrections.
• Training and capacity building: expanding professional development through workshops, webinars, conferences, and other learning opportunities.
• Policy advocacy and thought leadership: advancing responsible and ethical technology use in corrections through advocacy campaigns, policy briefs, and thought leadership forums.

The partnership also includes plans to launch a podcast series to elevate stories and insights from corrections leaders worldwide, with support from ICPA’s Technology Solutions Network.

Strengthening the evidence base: International Research in Corrections Conference (New Zealand, March 2026)

Research in corrections should impact how we deliver correctional services. The inaugural International Research in Corrections Conference was created to narrow the persistent gap between research and practice.

This conference reflects what many of you have told us: the field does not need more information. It needs clearer pathways to apply what we already know works.

Highlights include:

• 300 attendees from 26 countries
• 150 speakers
• 100+ presentations and posters

If you missed a session, want to revisit a big idea, or need evidence that you can actually apply, keep an eye on our resources library. The presentations will be available to download within a few weeks!

Member spotlight: Argentina’s Federal Prison Service

One of the most important things ICPA does is amplify the work happening inside systems that are tackling real complexity with seriousness and courage.

In our member spotlight, Breaking the Chains: How Argentina's Federal Prison Service Is Rewriting the Rules of Modern Corrections, leaders from Argentina’s Federal Prison Service (SPF) share their reform agenda and the operational realities behind it.

Their Strategic Plan (2024–2028) is anchored in five pillars:

1. Strengthening career development and motivation of human capital
2. Improving safety, security infrastructure, technology, and equipment
3. Implementing best strategies and practices to reduce reoffending
4. Promoting public integrity policies, transparency, and accountability
5. Modernizing regulations and improving institutional communications

The interview also outlines how assessment, personalized intervention planning, education partnerships, vocational programming, healthcare challenges, and release preparation are being approached in practice.

Regardless of context, the takeaway for many members will feel familiar: reform succeeds when it is tied to clear priorities, operational discipline, workforce investment, and accountability.

Romania: reform, reintegration, and the road to 2030

Another piece I encourage you to read is Romania’s Prisons at a Turning Point: Reform, Reintegration, and the Road to 2030, which provides a practical overview of Romania’s system and where the most consequential reforms are taking shape.

The interview highlights structural pressures, including capacity and staffing challenges, as well as major development efforts tied to infrastructure, compliance planning, and digitalisation.

It also reinforces a critical point: long-term outcomes depend not only on what happens during detention, but on continuity of support after release, including employment pathways and coordinated community involvement.

Leadership in action: Guyana Prison Service Senior Officers’ Conference (2026)

At the Guyana Prison Service 2026 Senior Officers’ Conference, Wynnie Testamark urged leaders to modernise, collaborate, and invest in humane, professional practice reminding us that the future of corrections will be secured “not by buildings alone,” but by courageous leadership. It was a powerful call to strengthen standards, invest in people, and build partnerships across the wider justice and community ecosystem.

Advancing Corrections Journal (ACJ): 20th Anniversary Edition (Open Access)

This year’s 20th Anniversary Edition of ICPA’s Advancing Corrections Journal brings together 28 expert commentaries on some of the most pressing issues in corrections today.

The message across these contributions is clear and evidence-informed: systems cannot rely on tradition alone. Public expectations are shifting toward rehabilitation that is safe, humane, and effective, and the field has an opportunity to meet that expectation with professionalism and practical reform.

We are releasing this special edition as Open Access so that colleagues worldwide can engage with it, share it, and use it.

Upcoming webinar: Research and Development Network

Our Research and Development Network will host a webinar on Challenges in Conducting Research in Corrections.

Research in correctional settings is vital, but uniquely complex. Security priorities, access constraints, ethical issues, and institutional culture all shape what is possible.

The webinar will cover:

• Building and sustaining partnerships with correctional agencies
• Navigating access, approvals, and operational constraints
• Working ethically with incarcerated participants in coercive environments
• Translating findings into policy and practice
• Maintaining independence amid political and ideological pressures

Date and time

6 May and7 May 2026

• • New York: 4 PM
  • London: 9 PM
• • Singapore: 4 AM
  • Sydney: 6 AM

Panelists

• Kevin Wright (Director, Arizona State University Center for Correctional Solutions)
• Danielle S. Rudes (Sam Houston State University)
• Ashley B. Batastini (Swinburne University of Technology)
• Devon Polaschek (University of Waikato)
• Jordan Hyatt (Drexel University)
• Prof (Hon) Helen Wakeling (KTA Research & Consulting; Cardiff Metropolitan University)

Registration: https://bit.ly/4sI2wf0

ICPA members attend at no extra cost. New registrants at full price receive a complimentary annual Full ICPA Membership.

Closing Reflections

The most powerful work in our community is often quiet and practical: a policy that becomes fairer, a workplace that becomes safer, a programme that becomes more effective, a person who returns to the community with a real chance to rebuild.

Thank you for what you do, and for the professionalism you bring to a field that matters to public safety, to human dignity, and to the communities we all serve.

With appreciation,

David Brown,

President

International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA)