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Welcome to the EuroPris Knowledge Management System. The table below shows questions and responses from European National Agencies. Select a question for more information or use the filters on the left to narrow down questions based on Agency or Category.
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Introduction:
We do not use any licensed product for measuring inmate recidivism, aggression and social risk for now. We have our own product and it is still in a development phase.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?Focus is on the individual person plan but generally we try to consider wider components to find out recidivism, aggression and social risk. Prisoner’s personal plane has to be created in the initial phase of serving a sentence and have to be followed through all periods. Special importance is to be shown to the last six months of punishments with the intention of advanced integration. Risk assessment procedures are conducted individually within the prisons. In measurement we include internal data which are important for us and from which it is also possible to conclude directions for inmate recidivism, aggression and social risk. In the Article 36 of Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions Act all data (static and dynamic factors) which we collect for the elaboration and completion of a personal convict plan during the enforcement of a prison sentence are listed: “ - data on the convict’s personality and behaviour; - data on measures and agreements reached with the convict in the personal plan and with regard to the preparation for life after sentence has been served; - data on the results of his treatment achieved during the enforcement of the sentence of imprisonment; - data on the measures and results achieved in the field of preparation for release; - data relating to family status (single, married, widower, long-term cohabitation); - data relating to housing, living and family conditions; - data on education and knowledge acquired; - data on current employment; - data on social and economic conditions, on pay before beginning of sentence, other receipts, real-estate ownership and maintenance obligations; - data on suicide risk; - the photograph; - personal description; - data on criminal proceedings pending before the courts on the grounds of reasonable suspicion of criminal acts before the beginning of sentence of imprisonment and after it; - data on pending criminal proceedings and civil proceedings in which damages for a criminal act were decided.”
During incarceration a risk assessment is done by the psychosocial service (see below) and this for the following categories of prisoners: A. Persons who are sentenced between 3 and 5 years (>3yr-≤5yr) of imprisonment and who have the Belgian nationality or permanent residence B. Persons who committed a sexual offence with or without the Belgian nationality or permanent residence C. Persons who have been sentenced to more than 5 years (>5yr) of imprisonment and who have the Belgian nationality or permanent residence A standard risk assessment, based on the 8 criminogenic domains of Andrews&Bonta (RNR), is done for all the category A prisoners and category B prisoners without the Belgian nationality or permanent residence. A risk assessment with instruments that include offence specific risk factors is done for the category B prisoners with the Belgian nationality or permanent residence (a convergent use of actuarial and structured professional judgement instruments like the Static-99 and SVR-20). For the category C prisoners certain criteria (i.e. the nature of the offence, criminal history, current detention behaviour, …) give direction to the level of depth of the risk assessment; i.c. whether the RNR-assessment is sufficient or if other tools, with offence specific risk factors ((sexual) violence, spousal assault, child abuse & neglect, stalking, violent extremism, …) should be used. In case of an in depth risk assessment with the use of tools that include offence-specific risk factors, the psychosocial service can make use of the following instruments (that are applicable on the case): - Instruments according to the actuarial-method (giving a baseline of the risk) o VRAG (Violence Risk Appraisal Guide) o Static-99 (Sexual violence) o DVRAG (domestic violence risk appraisal guide) - Instruments according to the Structured professional judgement-method (using the professional judgement to judge the relevance of risk factors in the individual case, to work out a risk theory (why someone committed the offence in the past and why he could do it again) and risk scenario’s (what can happen in the future, under what conditions, etc.) and implementing risk management strategies that can reduce the risk of recidivism in a certain kind of offence) o HCR-20V3 (historical clinical risk) o SVR-20 (sexual violence risk) o SARA (spousal assault risk assessment) o B-SAFER (brief spousal assault form for the evaluation of risk) o CARE-NL (child abuse risk evaluation) o SRP (stalking risk profile) o FAM (female additional manual) o VERA-2R (violent extremism risk assessment) o SAPROF (structured assessment of protective factors)
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?Each prison in Belgium has a psychosocial service which consists of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. The size of each team depends on the size of the prison and the number of prisoners incarcerated. The main task of the psychosocial service is giving advice to the Minister of Justice and the specialized court (in Dutch the “strafuitvoeringsrechtbank”) about the mode of the execution of sanctions (leaves, limited detention, electronic monitoring, conditional release) and to work out a release plan that minimizes the risk for reoffending. This release plan is made after a thorough risk and needs assessment. All risk assessments of prisoners convicted under terrorism law are supervised by senior psychologists working at the Central Psychosocial Service, located at the headquarter in Brussels.
Yes, during the admission of a prisoner, with every update of the sentence plan and in particu-lar before a conditional release.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?A central department diagnoses sexual offenders with a sentence of more than four years, murderer, slayers and prisoners with preventive detention. Therefore, psychologists determine the risk of recidivism, the potential for aggression and possible personality disorders. The risk assessment procedure of the other prisoners takes place within the prisons.
The staff of the psychological Services and departments in the prisons of Saxony have a selection of psychological standard tests at their disposal. These available tests include diagnostical instruments für the measurement of recidivism-risk, for example the LSI-R or the HCR-20 as well as instruments which also are related to prognosis, like the PCL-R.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?There is a psychological department in every prison in Saxony. There are standards, valid in all saxonian prisons, regulating the risk-assessment-procedure. With regard to high-risk-offenders the Criminological Service of Saxony supervises the risk-assessment.
Yes. Within the framework of the imprisonment sentence execution in Latvia, risk and needs assessment instrument is being used since 1st April 2012, when the amendments to the Sentence Execution Code of Latvia came into force. According with Section 61.5 of the Sentence Execution Code of Latvia, within two months after placing a convicted person in a deprivation of liberty institution in order to commence the serving of the sentence the head of the institution shall ensure an assessment of the risks and needs of the convicted person, determining: 1) the resocialisation needs of the convicted person, the degree of risk of anti-social behaviour and committing a repeated criminal offence in the deprivation of liberty institution; 2) the most appropriate social behaviour correction or social rehabilitation measures and other measures to be implemented during execution of the sentence and to be included in the resocialisation plan of the convicted person. A re-assessment of the risks and needs of the convicted person shall be performed not less than once a year throughout the term of serving the sentence. The resocialisation plan of the convicted person shall be amended according to the results of the assessment of the risks and needs. With the opening of the Addiction Centre in 2016, where the addiction reduction programme is carried out for 200 inmates, a more in-depth risk and needs instrument was developed for the addicted inmates. Risk and needs assessment instrument is developed by the personnel of the Latvian Prison Administration and approved by the Director General of the Latvian Prison Administration.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?Risk and Needs assessment is conducted individually within the prisons by the resocialisation specialists of the imprisonment place (person in charge of inmate's sentence execution, social worker and psychologist), i.e. assessment consists of three sections – one for each specialist.
We perform OASys based risk assessment, that is conducted on admission of the prisoner (after the sentencing) and afterwards yearly during the imprisonment.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?The risk assessment is conducted individually within the prisons. The initial risk assessment will be conducted within two weeks after the judgment of conviction has entered into force. The inspector-contact person is assessing the risks and is solely responsible for quality of the risk assessment. We don’t have the countersigning system. The quality of the risk assessments is monitored by random sample control conducted both by prisons and Ministry of Justice.
On admission, all prisoners receive a Core Screen, initial referrals are made and Community Integration Plans initiated. 5.1.2.1 Integrated Case Management (ICM) - Admission a All convicted offenders serving seven days or more will receive a Core Screen interview - carried out by a competent SPS staff member - within 72 hours of admission. b Offenders will be allocated to either the Enhanced or the Standard ICM process according to the guidance in the ICM Joint Practice Manual. c Once allocated, the Community Integration Plan (CIP) will be opened and thenceforth all relevant fields on PR2 will be completed, as per the ICM Joint Practice Manual. d The issue of consent to share information will be discussed with all prisoners and the appropriate entry made on PR2 to confirm this discussion has taken place. e All referrals identified through the Core Screen interview will be made in accordance with the Core Screen guidance (see ICM Joint Practice Manual) and recorded in the appropriate domain on the CIP screen within PR2. f Where a prisoner is subject to post-release supervision, the Governor will ensure relevant notification is issued to the supervising local authority within 14 days of receipt of the relevant information from the court. Such notification will include a request to appoint a Supervising Officer for the offender. g Where a prisoner is subject to post-release supervision, all relevant documentation will be copied to Community Based Social Work upon receipt of such information from the court. A risks and needs assessment is compiled and disseminated prior to Case Conference. 5.1.4.1 Integrated Case Management - Risk and Needs Assessment a At least 4 weeks prior to each case conference, a Case Conference Summary entry will be made in each domain to summarise key points from all entries made over the previous reporting period. Case Co-ordinators and service providers should agree on who takes responsibility for the entries across the various domains, and record this agreement for audit purposes. b Where an appropriate invitation has been issued but the personal officer is unable to attend the case conference, a written report should be provided in advance. This report will be completed using the standard template contained in the ICM Joint Practice Manual and attached to the Risk Assessment and Reports Screen in PR2. Arrangements will be made for a copy of the report to be disclosed to the offender prior to the case conference. c The ICM Case Co-ordinator and PBSW will jointly hold a Risk and Needs meeting prior to every scheduled case conference to exchange information, update the Risk and Needs Assessment and compile the ICM Case Conference Dossier, using the guidance in the ICM Joint Practice Manual. This meeting should be scheduled to allow for the ICM dossier to be distributed to all attendees at least 14 days prior to Case Conference. d Following the Risk and Needs meeting - and not less than 14 days before the scheduled case conference - the case co-ordinator will send a copy of the completed ICM Case Conference Dossier to relevant SPS (including the personal officer), CBSW and PBSW staff (and any other appropriate participants). e The contents of the ICM case conference dossier will be disclosed to the offender at least 14 days prior to the scheduled case conference through a meeting between the offender and the case co-ordinator/personal officer, who will check the offender understands the assessment/paperwork.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?Core Screen and any subsequent risk assessments required by referral are carried out locally in each establishment by suitably trained staff.
No
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?The Norwegian Correctional Service considers each case individually and takes into consideration a number of relevant factors. For example, it is relevant to consider the nature of the offense, the length of the sentence, previously committed crime, behavior during any previous imprisonment, and other relevant information. Similar evaluations are also carried out in several other contexts during the sentence, for example in relation to leave, release on parole, escorted leave etc. Norwegian Correctional Service is organized on three levels; central, regional and local. Most risk assessments are carried out by the local level, but also the two other levels of the organization are involved in conducting and analyzing risk assessments.
At the beginning of the prison sentences, we apply standard risk assessment procedure for criminal return, the assessment of risk factors and the prisoner’s needs, but standardized measurement tools for risk assessment are not applied (neither licensed, nor self-created). Currently, we standardize data collecting in order to develop instruments for risk assessment, and consider the introduction of SPP (Offender Assessment System) instrument which is applied in the Probation System of the Republic of Croatia.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?The procedure for assessing the risk of criminal return to the prison system of the Republic of Croatia is being carried out at the very beginning of serving the sentence at the Diagnostic Centre in Zagreb, which is established as a separate criminal authority under the Prison System Directorate of the Ministry of Justice for all prisoners (male and female) who have been sentenced to prison of 6 months or have a remaining part of the sentence longer than 6 months. The Diagnostic Centre in Zagreb carries out the medical, social, psychological and criminological treatment of prisoners in order to realize the principle of individualization of punishment and the drafting a proposal of prison sentence execution with a proposal of specific penitentiary or prison in which will the prisoner continue with serving the sentence. Complete, interdisciplinary, team diagnosis of the present condition of prisoners at the beginning of serving prison sentences is conducted; the characteristics and conditions that are directly or indirectly related to criminal offense or criminal behaviour in general are determined; the contents, procedures and security conditions are proposed, whose application can help the inmate after prison to live in accordance with the law; Individual program of execution of prison sentence for each prisoner and a specific penitentiary / prison in which the prisoner should continue to serve sentence is proposed. Expert team conducting diagnostic treatment of prisoners, assessing the criminogenic risks and the probability of criminal return on the basis of which proposing an Individual program of execution of prison sentence. Team consists of lawyers, social workers, psychologists and doctors (if necessary a psychiatrist). Within a month that prisoners generally spend at the Centre for diagnostics, we observe the behaviour of the prisoners in the prison department, each expert team member applies diagnostic procedures in accordance with the standards of their profession (analysis of received documentation, semi-structured diagnostic interviews, application of standardized measuring instruments, diagnostic procedures within the health service, etc.) all the collected data and estimates are integrated, based on which the Centre’s expert team prepares the Report with the proposed treatment for each prisoner.
Yes, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS) use specific risk and needs assessment instruments, where both static and dynamic risk factors are weighed together. The reason is that these are expected to provide a more secure basis for assessing the risk of relapse in crimes. The use of structured risk and needs assessment instruments is also mandatory within several of the SPPS’s treatment programs. The instruments are divided into different categories. The main instrument, RBM-B, is a comprehensive assessment of the clients risk, needs and responsivity. The instrument, which is empirically based, is developed by the SPPS. The RBM-B is an 87-item standardized screening tool, based on a file review and a structured interview with the client. The file review consists of 15 questions about the client's antisocial history. The interview consists of 72 questions regarding the areas anti-social personality patterns, pro-criminal attitudes/values, pro-criminal company, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, family/relationships, work/ school/employment/residence, leisure/recreation and physical/mental health. Based on the number, character and constellations of factors regarding risk or need the RBM-B results in an automatically generated assessment of risk to relapse (low-medium-high) in general crime and violent crime, as well as for those where it is applicable, partner violence and sexual offenses. In addition to this main instrument the SPPS uses some other standard instruments when it is deemed necessary. These are AUDIT (detecting overconsumption of alcohol, DUDIT (detecting drug-related problems) ALCOHOL-E (a self-assessment form of alcohol habits), DUDIT-E (a self-assessment form, a complement to DUDIT), ASI (an assessment tool for substance abuse and factors that may be considered related to or complicate the ability to discontinue drug abuse, based on an interview) ADAD (a structured interview tool designed for clients up to 21 years) and NODS-CLIP (a screening method for an inventory of gambling issues). There are also some instruments that are used within specific activities, for example, to support the decision whether to include or exclude a client in a particular treatment program or to evaluate treatment at an individual level. These instruments, which require a higher level of competence, are STATIC-99R, STABLE-2007, ACUTE-2007, LSI-R, SARA and VRS. Finally, there are some instruments that only are to be used by psychologists or psychiatrists with a special education and experience in the area for which the specific instrument is intended. These instruments, HCR-20 V2, PCL-R and SVR-20 are used to a limited extent.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?The RBM-B is used with all clients in the SPPS. Regarding inmates in prison the RBM-B is conducted at the prison where he och she serves the sentence. According to the Act on Imprisonment, a decision shall be taken on the special conditions that are necessary for security reasons concerning placement, leaves from prison and special preparatory release measures for a prisoner serving a sentence of imprisonment of at least four years. The SPPS has decided that a special investigation shall be made about a prisoner in this category, as a basis for the decision on the special conditions. For this purpose the SPPS has two special institutions (wards) where these assessments are conducted, one placed in a prison for males and one placed in a prison for women. After this process the prisoner are allocated in another ward or prison.
Yes all prisoners upon committal receive a full committal assessment. This is subsequently followed up with further assessments for work suitability, protection needs and medical assessment which advices any care plans. In addition other assessments are also undertaken to determine the safety of an individual under Rule 63, or a security assessment regarding the regime of the prisoner under Rule 62. Prisoners are also assessed prior to transfer or release. Risk assessments are carried out on all prisoners where a prison escort has to take place.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?All prisoners are assessed on an individual case by case basis in relation to prison based issues. A further assessment is carried out by decision makers from an operational point of view in relation to matters of prisoner releases and inter prison transfers.
In all prisons in Bulgaria is used adapted estimation of the risk of recidivism and harms /OASys/. It is a complex estimation of an inmate and have 14 chapters, as each of them regards to different factor connected with the offence. At the end of each chapter there are questions which allows the employee to correlate also with the risk of harms - for the inmate, other inmates, employee or the society. OASys combines static and dynamic risk factors: an estimation of the probability the inmate to offend again; to define and clasify the needs of the inmate; helps the management of the risk of recidivism and harms; the connection of the estimation with the plan of the sentence, to measure the change during imprisonment and to define the correctional work with the inmate.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?For each new inmate in prison a social worker, psychologist and a doctor prepare estimation of the risk of recidivism and harms. A part of OASys is the self-estimation of the inmate, as the aim is to ensure a better information for him/her. After the estimation, an initial report is prepared. The social worker writes his proffesional openion and estimation of the inmate - behaviour, problem zones etc. and prepares initial plan of the sentence. Concrete aims and tasks are placed in order to form prosocial behaviour and to resocialize. The results are input in reports by the social worker and after that the sentence is planned again. On the basis of the estimation for risk of recidivism and harms, suggestions are made for change of the regime, placement in a hostel, conditional release, measures for individual and group work are planned, inclusion in different activities etc.
Yes, we use the RNR based risk- and need assessment tool LS/RNR, that relates to recidivism and assesses general and specific risk- and need factors and responsivity. The assessment is made as a part of the admission procedure, which has to be completed within 7 workdays.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?In some prisons we have a physical admissions department where the assessment is made, in other prisons the admission is a procedure. The assessment is made by a social worker, who works in the prison, and is made on the basis of an individual interview with the client.
We perform a generalized, standardized risk/need asessment - LS/RNR, related to recidivism. We assess offenders in both incarceration and in the probation service.
How do you perform the risk assessment procedure? Are they conducted individually within the prisons or do you have a central department/institution that is responsible for it?The risk/need assessment is conducted by social workers, certified to do the assessments. The assessments are conducted in the prison or probation service, responsible for the offender.
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