Lost your Password?
Click Here
Don't have an account?
Register Here
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.
Want to ask a question? Please read our guidance information found here: Submitting a KMS Question
← Back Search KMSThis content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
Introduction: The Irish Prison Service is considering a framework for possible future engagement with persons convicted of offences related to radicalisation and violent extremism. To this end, the Irish Prison Service would appreciate the support of Europris members in responding to the following question.
The prison services in Switzerland are administered at the level of the cantons (26), which are organised, for purposes of homogenisation, in three concordates. Two recent surveys, conducted online in 2019 by the Swiss Security Network and the Swiss Centre of Expertise indicate that there are no formal professional risk assessments used specifically for cases related to radicalisation and violent extremism. It is possible that in some services risk assessment professionals have trained themselves in tools (e.g. TRAP-18), but no formal use has been declared. The Swiss National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Radicalisation and Violent Extremism recommends the promotion of screening and risk assessment tools in its measures 7 and 8. The results on which tools are used can be found on pages 26 and 27 of the survey report by the Swiss Security Network which can be downloaded here: https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/57567.pdf. Screening tools comprise Ra-Prof (developed by the institute SIFG), Octagon (developed by University of Konstanz) and Islamismusscreener (developed by the Institut für Bedrohungsmanagement Darmstadt). The risk assessment tools which are used for the few cases related to radicalisation and violent extremism are the standard validated forensic tools, used within the framework of "ROS" (a case-management system) for most of the German-speaking cantons and by cantonal criminological evaluation units in the Latin cantons. Currently, the Swiss Centre of Expertise on Prison and Probation is writing a report on the quality of available risk assessment tools, in order to formulate recommendations for the cantonal prison services on whether to acquire any of them or not. You can follow the work of the Centre on www.skjv.ch.
Currently no formal risk assessment instrument specifically designed to asses radicalisaton and violent extremism is being used. At present a combination of different methods is implemented based on direct observation: in addition to the follow-up by the security staff observations on the individual and group behaviours, treatment professionals - which include psychologists, criminologists, social workers and educators - assess the most distinctive cognitive aspects such as rigid thinking, understanding of the religious or cultural practice, etc…
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
The Finnish Prison and Probation Service (Criminal Sanctions Agency) uses the VERA 2R assessment tool to assess the risk of persons inspired by ideologically motivated violence.
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
we only have a Plan on Radicalization Prevention in Prison System based on which guidelines on identification of radicalization in prison settings were drafted
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
Currently in Latvian prison system no special risk assessment tools are used in relation to radicalisation and violent extremism. However, we would like to mention that when developing inmate's risk and needs assessment and plan, every case is evaluated separately thus finding the most progressive approach for successful integration back into society. As an example we can mention the Non-governmental organization (NGO) work within the framework of which imams can pass the correctly interpreted notion of religion to those prisoners who have accepted Islam. As previously mentioned, the normative regulation of the LPA system currently does not stipulate separate strategy for work with this type of prisoners, there is possible only individual approach. Taking into account the trends in society, including in prisoner population, in the near future we are not planning to implement in practice such separate radicalisation risk assessment mechanisms. Between LPA, State Probation Service and the Latvian State Security Service there have been signed an inter-institutional agreement. The agreement states that similarly as it is done in the cases when the committed offence can be interpreted as rape, also in the cases when one of the characteristics is assessed to be radicalisation, it is possible to establish inter-institutional working group meetings, within the framework of which the respective institutions develop an action plan for work with the specific person. In the meetings, it is possible to involve experts and employees from different fields who are connected in any way with the specific person (social service, education institution etc.). These meetings are not open to public and the gained information is not made known to third parties. Latvian Prison Administration Training centre organizes trainings about radicalisation phenomenon and its understanding for officials with special service ranks. Officials are introduced with the situation both in global and in Latvia's context. They are also introduced with the procedure for cases when facing signs of radicalisation or violent extremism. LPA has participated in different international projects, out of which Italian NGO "AGENFOR" organized project "Training Aid" can be highlighted. Within the framework of this project, LPA specialists underwent training, so that they could then implement cascade training on local scale for other employees and officials in Latvia. Project was successfully finished in 2019.
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
This content is only available to registered members of EuroPris.
The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS) has recently started to assess violent extremists with VERA2R as a part of our participation in the DARE-project (Database and Assessment of Risk of violent Extremists, Funded by European Commission, JUST-AG-2016-03, project number 763765). The VERA-2R is an empirical based violence extremism risk assessment tool.
The primary tool for all individuals convicted of a Terrorism Act (TACT) or TACT-related offence is the Extremism Risk Guidance (ERG). It is a formulation-guided assessment that looks at factors that can be helpful in understanding why someone committed a terrorism or terrorism related offence. Its purpose is to inform proportionate risk management, increase understanding and confidence amongst staff and decision-makers working with extremist offenders, and facilitate effective and targeted intervention. ERGs should only be completed by those Registered Psychologists and Probation Officers within HMPPS who have received ERG training.
Italian prison Administration has been dealing with terrorism also of religious origin for years, through the monitoring of prisoners restricted for terrorist offences or in connection with such offences and of persons reported for reasons of proselytism and violent radicalization in prison. In fact, prisons represent a recruitment ground, facilitated also by the difficult overcrowding conditions and lack of resources. In prison, indeed, the dissatisfaction with the “system”, the suffering deriving from the deprivation of liberty, social exclusion, represent degenerative elements which, if accompanied by the harmful influence of radicalized persons, who exercise a violent, physical or psychological pressure, can sharpen the feeling of isolation and exclusion. All these factors cause, in the desire of research of one’s identity and belonging to the group, the totalizing sharing of extremist ideologies which may well be the symptom of a violent radicalisation of a terrorist nature. For this reason, in Italy, prisoners restricted for the offence as per art. 270 bis of the penal code are included in the prison circuit High Security 2 providing a strict separation from the remaining prison population. If, from one hand, such organization seems to be functional to the reduction of risks of proselytism towards common prisoners or dangerous connections with other criminal associations, it was found that, even in common circuits, are often restricted prisoners of a certain level, arrested for less serious offences and surrounded by weak and easily influenceable persons. In consideration of the increase in the terrorist threat, the Department of prison administration has adopted, in the course of the years, a series of more and more refined preventive and control measures, aiming at countering the phenomenon, through the Central Investigation Unit, an investigation body of the Penitentiary Police Corps. In substance, the Central Investigation Unit, once received the report of an alleged ongoing radicalisation process, shall carry out investigations, shall order the Prison Directorate the level to assign to the prisoner and shall examine all the data concerning the offender’s life in prison (report drafted by penitentiary police staff on the conduct, synthetic report of the pedagogic area, disciplinary infringements, location in the cells, etc.) and his contacts with the outside world (correspondence flows, sums of money send and/or received, visual and telephonic interviews and postal packages). The results of such activity are shared, with a view to cooperation, with the counter-terrorism strategic analysis committee, the Anti-mafia and anti-terrorism national Directorate and, insofar there are facts of investigative and/or judicial interest, they are shared with the Judicial Authority. The analysis of such phenomenon, carried out by the Central Investigation Unit in cooperation with regional and local offices, develops on three different levels of monitoring: The first level – classified as HIGH – gathering the persons who committed offences connected with international terrorism and those of particular interest for conducts showing forms of proselytism, radicalisation and/or recruitment. The second level – classified as MEDIUM – gathers prisoners who within prison have showed behaviors which make them assume their closeness to jihadist ideologies and then, to proselytism and recruitment ideology. The third level – classified as LOW – gathers those prisoners who, for the general character of the information provided for by the prison, deserve a deep analysis for the subsequent assessment for the assignment to the first or second level or the maintenance or removal from the third level. The activities consist in the careful observation of the person aiming at the ascertainment of his possible joining to extremist ideas and in the implementation of procedures aiming at the de-radicalisation, through disengagement programmes. Such programmes are intended as disindoctrination and/or disempowering programmes which, without demanding the renunciation of a radical ideology, aim at leading the person to a non-extremist vision of Islam, refusing violent action, in favor of a moderate or however less conflict vision. In assessing risk factors, and in classifying symptomatic behaviors, the experience of these years has highlighted as it is not possible, despite the efforts that might be made, to identify them clearly as the joining to violent radicalization path often is carried out as an interior process which not necessarily, and not always, show clear signs. Only if, and when, the interior change is associated with a change in the behavior it is possible, for the professional to identify a possible radicalisation risk. The observation, then, is carried out through an evaluation of a series of elements such as radicalisation risk indicators, both personal and contextual , never analyzed in an isolated manner but in the whole. Their presence constitutes, not yet a result, but rather an input requesting the implementation of a more careful and scrupulous supervision activity. The more the “root” engendered in the radicalising or radicalised person is deep, the higher is the level of observation of which he/she is the addressee and more advanced is the threshold aiming at preventing the effects of a possible process of radicalisation, which can lead to to the preventive expulsion of the person from the national territory, at the time of his/her release, if still deemed dangerous. In the course of the years, spent in the examination of this phenomenon, through a constant analysis of prison context, it is deemed that the counter-action should necessarily evolve, leaving conventional schemes already known, to implement new forms of observation and prevention. In such perspective, in order to ensure a specialized training of the staff called to work in such a delicate sector as prison, prison Administration, with the cooperation of the Central Investigation Unit, took part, at European level, in a series of training projects, among which, recently, Train Training, Transfer Radicalisation Approaches in Training which has contributed to strengthen the capacities of understanding and recognizing the signals which can indicate a violent radicalization risk, through the synergic support of expert reports coming from prison. TRAin Training was financed by the European Commission (Grant Agreement n. 763745), and its partners were: The university of Study of Padua, “L’Orientale” and la Cattolica Sacro Cuore di Gesù, as well as the Ministry of the Interior, The Higher School of Judiciary, The Siracusa International Institute for criminal justice and human rights, l’Institut de Formation Judiciaire of Belgium and the Directorate General for the execution of sentences of Bulgaria. In the framework of the project, the risk assessment has been carried out by Transcrime, a University research Centre of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, on the basis of the experience made by the Central Investigation Unit with specific regard to the identification of indicators of the processes of violent radicalization. The screening of risk assessment is supported by the following indicators: • elements concerning the “Personal History” allowing to collect information regarding prisoners’ background. The historical elements are studied in order to identify the preceding exposure to violence; • elements relating to “Emotions” allowing to detect “a series of emotional motivational reasons which have been highlighted as important in understanding the involvement in terrorism”; • elements relating to “Behaviour and Environment” allowing to collect and analyze the information on the attitude of the prisoner and the possible change during detention; • elements relating to “Ideology” allowing to collect and analyze information in order to understand “if the behaviour or the attitudes of the individual support the ideological values of a movement”. In fact, violent extremism has been defined as “the zealous joining in a set of beliefs and values or ideologies out of the ordinary, with the will of using violence”. The information collected are processed by the observation and treatment team established at each prison, composed of various professionals working in the prison (educator, penitentiary police officers, psychologist, probation officer, chaplain, volunteers, under the coordination of the prison governor). That team immediately communicates the relevant information to the central offices for the possible assignment to a profile of analysis by the Central investigation Unit. Such methodology, after a period of specific training of the staff concerned, carried out by the Directorate General for Staff Training and by the Central Investigation Unit, has been experimented providing the prison professionals, and in particular the front line penitentiary police staff, with all the tools implemented during the project. Among them the “Syllabus”, which was drafted by l’Università L’Orientale of Naples, with the purpose of providing, all the professionals interested in the Project, with the fundamental elements of Islamic tradition and its main expressions, provided that only the punctual knowledge of that world can be useful to the dissuasion from committing conflicting behaviors, with the aim of countering a constructive dialogue in order to bring back the discussion at the level of awareness, knowledge and mutual respect. To date, then, the reading to “risk indicators” is carried out by qualified staff, duly trained, so avoiding the reporting of cases relating to “false positives”, or of those cases which do not include case of radicalization.