A 3-day on-site assessment of the existing Offender Behaviour Programmes (OBPs), rehabilitation and reintegration activities and risk assessment tools in prisons, took place on 22-24 May 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia. Two international Council of Europe(CoE) consultants joined by CoE staff,  representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the European Union delegation, visited different prison facilities including the correctional facility for female prisoners, the juvenile detention centre, the prison hospital for mentally-ill offenders and the training centre for prison staff in Nis. In addition, the consultants held in-depth discussions with CSOs active in the area.

The assessment visit will be followed by a report with clearly defined recommendations and by a series of meetings to discuss the improvement of the OBPs and risk assessment tool. Preliminary findings were shared with the Ministry of Justice at the debriefing meeting.  Improved rehabilitation and reintegration programmes will be introduced to selected prisons, while it was greed that designing and further developing of treatments will be performed in close cooperation with the staff from treatment departments, ensuring ownership and sustainability.

The activity was organised within the HF Action “Enhancing human rights protection for detained and sentenced persons in Serbia”, the action that is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe, started on 1 January 2017 and will be completed on 31 August 2018 with an overall budget of 780.000 euros.