The free movement of citizens across the EU has done much to create a sense of common identity and enhance opportunities for European citizens. An inevitable part of such freedom of movement has not only been an economic migration but also a migration of criminal activity with the consequence that significant numbers of criminals from less affluent parts of Europe have been imprisoned in jurisdictions outside their own. In December 2011, the Framework Decision came into force that made it easier for these persons to be repatriated to serve the remainder of their sentence in their home jurisdiction.
EuroPris intends formally to canvas views from their members to explore the impact of such repatriation (on both sending and receiving jurisdictions) and to examine on the basis of an early experience if there are early lessons to be learned that could enhance future transfer. With the increasing flow of exchange prisoners we believe that there is an increasing demand for information exchange, to learn from each other, to develop a more grounded understanding of each other’s systems and to advance mutual trust in the prisons’ arena.
This report gives its conclusions and recommendations from an expert group comprising members of European jurisdictions with regards to the exchange of prisoners under European Framework Decision 909.