The Europeanisation of Prison Management - Best Practices Dissemination: Seminar III: Organising and Managing Penitentiary Services: Quality Standards (AGIS)

Objectives
The progressive Europeanisation of public administration structures and human resources is one of the main challenges Europe is facing at the dawn of the 21st Century. European judicial cooperation has as one of its objectives the approximation of criminal law. The essential part of criminal law is service of sentences, in which the prisons are a central element. But there is no European prison model. Each penitentiary system in Europe is very different from country to country. The creation of an area of freedom, security and justice requires facilitating the creation of a common European penitentiary model.

Prisons in Europe are going through a modernisation process designed to reduce the constraints and to constantly adapt to the changing society. Traditionally, the different systems have concentrated on improving prison intervention programmes such as motivating inmates, reducing conflicts, obtaining treatment programmes, training and prison work, etc. In recent years some Member States have developed organisational and functional measures aimed at improving the organisation of prisons as a whole, with special emphasis on efficient management and human resources, evaluation systems, and human rights considerations.

These aspects are of growing importance if prisons are to achieve their objectives. Providing a European space for reflection and analysis of the best practices applied in the areas studied will be a valuable instrument for developing a European penitentiary catalogue of good practices.

Prison managers have to be able to structure their organisations and lead their teams in a very demanding environment, where comparative analysis of good practices becomes a must.

The four partners in the project are:

Four two-day international seminars will take place in three different cities: Barcelona, Luxembourg and Bratislava:
 
Seminar I: Barcelona, 8-9 November 2007 (already held)
Models for the Public Penitentiary service, covering selection processes, career development, initial training and senior staff training, and working conditions for staff.
 
Seminar II: Luxembourg, 28-29 February 2008 (already held)
Supervision of prisoners' rights, covering European models for prison supervision and monitoring and judicial monitoring of penitentiary laws in Europe.
Analysis of the critical aspects such as A)prisoners and health care; B) Disciplinary procedures (comparative analysis); C) Relevant aspects of living conditions.
 
Seminar III: Bratislava, 21-22 May 2008
Planning and assessment in the penitentiary system: quality corrections. TQM Basics, tools for TQM, analytical and management methods.
 
Seminar IV: Barcelona, 19-20 June 2008
Intervention programmes with prisoners, covering good practices on intensive intervention with prisoners convicted of violent and sex crimes and drug addicts. Good practices in other programmes such as work and skills training, education and cultural activities, and the access to new technologies.
 
The seminars will be open to any person interested in these topics and we expect to have minimum 30 participants for each event. More particularly, prison managers are especially encouraged to take part in these activities.
 
Expected outcome:
Development of a catalogue of good practices on correctional management and creation of a network of experts to compare and revise correctional administration in Europe in order to harmonise and apply the best practices applied in the different Member States.
 
The working languages will be English and Spanish for the seminars in Barcelona, English and French for the seminar in Luxembourg, and English and German for the seminar in Bratislava. The material will be made available in EN, ES, FR or DE, depending on the language used by the speakers. The conclusions of the four seminars will be published in English.