European Prison Regime Forum Workshop (April 2021)

Unfortunately, with great regret that in light of current circumstances regarding the Covid-19 outbreak, we have no option but to postpone the European Prison Regime Forum which was originally scheduled for 13-14 April 2021 in Helsinki, Finland.

The new date and place will be determined later here.

Call for papers

For over 20 years, the European Prison Regime Forum has brought together practitioners, NGOs and academics to speak about prison work. The traditional focus on labor has already been expanded to vocational training and will this year also include sports. If you would like to submit your abstract (max 300 words) please submit it to [email protected]  using this template.

EuroPris is seeking papers for presentations in two streams:

Stream I: Future-proof prison labor & vocational training

Papers are welcomed that focus on topics relating to the following questions:

1. How can prison labour be designed to benefit elderly prisoners, for whom labour no longer serves reintegration on labour market, because they are approaching or are already beyond retirement age? Papers may include perspectives on prisoners who serve long-term (15 years or more) or life sentences with no realistic expectation of reintegration into society.
2. What are suitable programs for prisoners with a partial work ability, for example because of a physical disability or a low IQ? To what extent does the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008) offer guidance in this regard?
3. How do we prepare prisoners for the employment needs of modern society? In some European countries, certain sectors are in need of skilled staff. Can prisons work together with companies to train prisoners in these field? In addition, new information and communications technologies and systems, including artificial intelligence, require trained staff. How can this be organized within prisons?

Stream II: Prison sports (papers and market place)

In its 2019 status report on prison health in the WHO European Region, the WHO stressed that prisons need to be health-enabling environments that can contribute to an improvement in health and well-being. It recommends that time spent in custody should be used to improve existing health conditions through appropriate treatments and modify health-risk behavior for NCDs through, for example, physical activity. Papers are invited that offer guidance for such activities, both in theory and in practice. What should be the parameters of sports programs in prisons and what are best practices and challenges? How can they be made more widely available? For this stream in particular, abstracts are also invited for workshops that include real life experiences or video presentations.

Agenda

Draft agenda of the workshop will follow soon.

Participants

EuroPris workshops are open for European public sector representatives, academics and NGOs only.

Registration

Information on registration will follow soon.

Meeting Location

Information on meeting location will follow soon.