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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 21st 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 realise more efficient prison buildings – with lower running costs, reductions in maintenance spending and intelligent use of technology.

Duration: 2015 - Present
Status: Ongoing
Coordinator:
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Jochem Wildeman

Founder Network Member, Reclassering Nederland (NL)

Christopher Stacey

Founder Network Member, Prisoners Abroad (UK)

Roisin Mulgrew

Founder Network Member, University of Galway (IE and UK)

Luisa Ravagnani

Founder Network Member, Università degli Studi di Brescia (IT)

Leslie Alcock

Founder Network Member, ICPO-Maynooth (IE)

Osman Nazir

CEP member, HMPPS (UK)

Karen Delespaul

CEP member (BE)

Bogdan Popa

CEP member, MoJ Romania (RO)

Elena Fiorini

CEP member, MoJ Italia (IT)

Albert Blancafort Cano

CEP member, Generalitet de Catalunya (ES)

Patrick Fransen

EuroPris member, Federale Overheidsdienst Justitie (BE)

Torben Adams

EuroPris member, UNODC (DE)

David Redhouse

EuroPris member, HMPPS (UK)

Esther Montero Pérez de Tudela

EuroPris member, Criminologist Jurist of the Spanish Penitentiary Administration (ES)

Berfu Altay

EuroPris member, Ministry of Justice of Türkiye (TR)

Jana Spero / Mirka Jakesova

Secretary General (CEP, the Netherlands)

Daniel Danglades

Chair: CEP member, French Prison & Probation Services (FR)

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The expert group Children of Prisoners developed the following tools to support member states in the implementation of the CoE Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)5 to provide guidance in this process:

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The group worked on several outputs until the group finished by the end of 2022.

The expert group wrote a Covid Chapter as an annex/addition to the Implementation Guidance Report to focus on ‘Lessons Learned’ during the pandemic, in regard to children’s rights and family relations.

The expert group sent out a letter to national agencies and authorities to stimulate inter-agency cooperation and create awareness of the responsibilities of other sectors towards the Recommendation on Children of imprisoned parents from the Council of Europe. The letter was sent to Family Ministry/Social Ministry, Prosecutors, Courts, Police and NGO’s. The motive was to stimulate cooperation for projects together to implement the recommendation and strengthen children’s rights.

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Due to Covid-19 the Children of Prisoners expert group could only meet online in the course of 2020. A total of five online meetings took place throughout the year. During the meetings the experts shared their experiences on the impact of Covid-19 on the relations between imprisoned parents and their children and how this was addressed through alternative means, like video conferencing. Since the main focus of the group is on the implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation on Children of imprisoned parents, the group has worked on drafting three documents to support member states in the implementation process.

First of all the members worked on a report addressing four areas in relation to the Recommendation:

  • Security and normalization
  • Relation with NGO’s
  • Engagement with the Justice family
  • Child’s voice & data collection

Second, a Table of Recommendations has been developed. This table contains concrete good practice examples from the member states of the expert group for each article of the Recommendation. This will provide very practical guidance on how to transform the Recommendation into practice.

Finally, the collection of data on the number of children affected by the imprisonment of their parents is an issue of high interest and addressed very differently throughout Europe. A Data Collection Matrix has been developed that reflects the current practice in the member states with regard to this data collection.

Two videos were created to present how the expert group reflected on the recommendation and the benefits of the collection of data.

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The Children of Prisoners Expert Group met in May 2022 in Kecskemet, Hungary. The dissemination of the main messages of the Council of Europe – Recommendation on a national level was stressed as it is the last year of these expert group. The importance of collaboration between different responsible agencies and authorities was emphasised in being a crucial prerequisite for an adequate implementation of the Recommendation in all over Europe.

The meeting was held in the regional court. Two presentations from the host countries were provided:

First, the Deputy President of the Regional Court, Criminal Division of Kecskemét Court of Law, explained the Children’s rights during judicial proceedings. He mentioned the principles of necessity and graduality and processes of the Hungarians court system. Second, a presentation of a representative of the County Police Headquarters about the Police perspective on the Council of Europe’s Recommendation on Children of Prisoners, and the procedures of police was held. The local good relationships between the Prison, Court, and Police were visible during this expert group meeting. Besides that, the group discussed the last tasks for this year and agreed on an update to the Table of Recommendations and Practices for 2022, as well as the addition of a Covid chapter in the Guidance Implementation Report. A prison visit of the Bács-Kiskun County Remand Prison took place including a juvenile, mother-child and a light regime quarter. All in all, it was a very fruitful and effective meeting in a small group with and very hospitable hosts.

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The expert group contributed with several speeches in November to the EuroPris Workshop in Leiden, Netherlands. Click here to view the page of the workshop.