News Promoting Penitentiary Reforms (from a punitive to a rehabilitative approach)
November newsletter on human rights and healthcare in Georgian prisons
Take a look at the November newsletter for an overview of the ongoing activities aiming to improve the provision of mental health in Georgian prisons and other closed institutions. These activities are under the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe Programmatic Cooperation...
Helping prisoners in Ukraine understand their rights
A practical Question and Answer handbook on prisoners’ rights in Ukraine has been developed jointly by the Council of Europe experts, prisoners’ advocates, human rights defenders, representatives of the Ombudsman Office and the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine. This self-help handbook is to...
Workshop on Criminal Justice Responses to Prison Overcrowding in EaP
How can Eastern Partnership countries prevent prison overcrowding? One of the answers is the criminal justice in each country. A regional workshop on the “Criminal Justice Responses to Prison Overcrowding in Eastern Partnership Countries” will take place on 22-23 June 2016, at the Radisson Blu...
New report on prison overcrowding in EaP
A report on criminal justice responses to prison overcrowding in Eastern Partnership countries has just been published. The report describes and comments on the current situation in four Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in relation to tackling...
Further improvements to prison hospital services in Armenia
A detailed overview of the assessment and a list of recommendations for the improvement of prison hospital services in Armenia were discussed at a roundtable that took place on 30 May 2018 in Yerevan. The roundtable brought together Council of Europe (CoE) consultants and 29 representatives of...
A stocktaking conference on the project to support penitentiary reform in Ukraine
The project stocktaking conference was held in Kyiv on 16 November 2017 to inform all stakeholders about the progress made since 2015 and to share the plans for 2018. The members of the Project Co-ordination Committee - Mr Iurii Miroshnychenko, MP, and the Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Denys...
Criminal justice and drug policy conference in Chisinau
Delegates at the international conference on ‘Rehabilitative approaches to drug dependent prisoners’, held in Chisinau, 29-30 November 2017, called for a deepening of professional exchanges in the field of drug dependence treatment and prevention in prisons. More than 100 prison managers, policy...
First prison-based therapeutic community in Republic of Moldova
The first prison-based therapeutic community in Pruncul prison in the Republic of Moldova was opened on 29 November 2017. “This ambitious and noble project will be a further successful and much needed drug dependence treatment programme in the Moldovan prison system”, said the Moldovan Deputy...
First training programme for psychiatric nurses in Georgia
The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) are assisting the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia (MoC) in the training of psychiatric nurses on main principles of mental health nursing. Between June and July 2017, 15 psychiatric nurses were trained based on a program developed by CoE...
Presentation of the Prison Management Manual
The Council of Europe presented the Prison Management Manual (the Manual), developed under the project “Support for penitentiary reform in Ukraine”, in Chernihiv, at the Chernihiv Penitentiary Academy and in Bila Tserkva, at the Penitentiary In-Service Training Centre on 10 and 11 May 2017. The...
Study Visit to the Danish Prison and Probation Service
A study visit to Copenhagen, Denmark for representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights Defender’s Office of the Republic of Armenia and "Social justice" NGO took place on 27-30 June 2017. The Armenian delegation visited the...
Prisons Free of Suicide Cases
The Council of Europe and the European Union continue to support the further enhancement of skills of Georgian prison psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers in administering Suicide Prevention Programmed (SPP) in prisons. As a part of the support, on-site supervision of multidisciplinary...
Training on managing prisoners with mental health problems
The Council of Europe and the European Union organised 1-day training sessions for 7 groups of medical and non-medical personnel of the penitentiary system, on managing prisoners with mental health problems, between 26 June and 3 July 2017. In total, up to 158 participants from different prisons...
Training of prison psychologists
Training for fifteen prison psychologists, including eight women, from eleven penitentiary institutions in Armenia was held from 21 to 24 June 2017 in Yerevan, in cooperation with the RA Ministry of Justice and the Association of Psychoanalysts of Armenia. The aim of the training was to...
Roundtable on prison healthcare legislation in Armenia
A roundtable to present and discuss the legislative package on prison healthcare in Armenia took place on 23 June 2017, in Yerevan bringing together fifteen high-level representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Penitentiary Department, Ministry of Health, Ombudsman Office and members of Public...
New action plan to fight against ill-treatment
The Council of Europe Office in Georgia and the European Union Delegation are assisting the Georgian Government in assessing the implementation of the current action plan to fight against ill-treatment and review of the new draft for 2017-2018 prepared by the stakeholders. During a half-day...
Supporting professional development of temporary detention isolator staff
The Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) are assisting the Ministry of Internal Affairs in developing of a distance learning program for the staff of the police detention facilities. The CoE international expert participated in a working group meeting in Georgia on 16-17 May to...
Better crisis management in Georgian prisons
On 1-2 May 2017 Council of Europe (CoE) and European Union (EU) organised working group meeting on introducing the crisis intervention in Georgian prisons. The meeting is part of the assistance provided to Georgian authorities in developing crisis intervention in the penitentiary system. As a...
Working together for well-being of prisoners and prison staff
On 11-13 April 2017 Council of Europe (CoE) and European Union (EU) organised a 2-day training on so-called cold and hot debriefing tools for two groups, composing of suicide prevention programme coordinators in prisons and regime staff. The training was preceded by the off-site work of...
Workshop for prison directors on Code of Ethics
On 28 February 2017, the first interactive workshop on the revised Code of Ethics for prison staff in Ukraine for 25 senior prison officers, the heads of prisons from the Central Interregional Administration of Execution of Criminal Sanctions and Probation took place. The workshop was hosted by...