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At the EuroPris Annual General Meeting in Bucharest on 8th June it was agreed to install two new EuroPris expert groups in 2015. This week all EuroPris members receive a request to nominate experts for these new groups that will be dealing with Radicalisation in prisons and with Real estate / logistics. The nominations will be submitted by 31st August latest. Both groups will have their first meeting in November 2015. We will invite experts from maximum 10 different countries to join each of the groups.
EuroPris Expert Groups
Expert group meetings are round table discussions in which the experts have a chance for a direct and practical exchange of knowledge and best practices in their respective field. Keeping the number of participants small enables a lively and concrete discussion on specific subjects among the participants from various countries. The meeting agenda will be developed in cooperation and consultation with the chair of the expert group.
Each group should consist of about 8-10 experts. Each Prison Service that is a member of EuroPris is entitled to nominate one expert for each group. Based on the number of nominations, the required expertise, the variety of countries represented in other expert groups and a regional balance we will select the experts that will be invited for these two groups and inform you accordingly.
The duration of the expert meeting will be for a maximum of 1.5 days. EuroPris will cover the costs for travel, hotel and catering during the event and makes all necessary logistical arrangements. Nominations should be submitted until 31st August latest. It would be appreciated if the nomination included a short motivation for interest in the expert group. Also, suggestions for topics or issues for the agenda of the meeting could be submitted.
Radicalisation in prisons
After the events in France and Denmark at the beginning of 2015 radicalisation has become a top priority on the agenda of the EU and Council of Europe and in many national administrations. Much attention is paid to the work of prison services in detection, prevention, treatment and de-radicalization of radicalized offenders. Not much of the actions taken is evidence based and prison services struggle in finding the right approach and methods to deal with this subject.
Within the upcoming EuroPris meeting we would like to have experts around the table that deal with these issues in their prison service and that are eager to exchange their views and practices with experts from other countries. We envisage that the first meeting would mostly be an open exchange about the plans and practices in each country.
Each expert meeting is chaired by one of the experts. He/she is the one who will also work with us in the preparation of the contents of future meetings. Since we do not yet have a chair in mind for this group, please indicate if you would be interested to become the chair for this expert group.
The meeting is planned to take place in Vienna on 24-25 November 2015.
Real estate / logistics
Prisons in Europe are not only very different within one country, but also vary much between countries and regions. Many questions arise when it comes to planning, constructing, renovating prison facilities. Are they fit for their purpose in the 21e century? Are current prisons unjustifiably expensive? How could savings be made on real estate ? How could prison premises become structurally more efficient and how to deal with underlying drivers of inefficiency? ? How could we be more effective with a better design and location choice?
Some countries in Europe replace old, expensive to maintain and ill equipped prisons with new buildings. What is their new for old strategy? What are the experiences with private public sector arrangements? How do we introduce more flexibility into real estate – enabling us to better respond to changes in the prison population? How could we realize more efficient prison buildings – with lower running costs, reductions in maintenance spending and an intelligent use of technology
Possible topics for the agenda:
The initiative for establishing this expert group was taken by the head of the Facility Services, Housing and Procurement of the Netherlands Custodial Institutions Agency, Hans de Jong and the head of Beveren Prison, Belgian Prison Service, Els van Herck. Both of them will co-chair the first meeting.
The meeting is planned to take place on 5-6 November 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal.