The Turkish General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses (since 2015 a member of EuroPris) celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Probation Service with a Symposium that was held from 8-10 December in Istanbul. Board member of EuroPris, Živilė Mikėnaitė, participated on behalf of EuroPris with an opening address about the work of EuroPris.
Probation was promoted as an alternative to imprisonment, not only for its positive effects on reducing overpopulation in prisons, but also for minimizing the negative effects and the costs of imprisonment to individuals and to the system. It has become an essential part of Turkish execution/law enforcement system in a very short time, as its applications are familiar and well-matched to many historical applications in Turkish Judicial system and the roots of law history. As a human oriented and community based application, probation serves for the aims of providing public safety, compensating the damages of victims, preventing reoffending and helps reintegrating the offenders into the society. The participants at the Symposium (government officials, probation managers, researchers, etc) reviewed the 10 year-experience of Turkish Probation, provided up-to-date analysis of current and future uses of probation, discussed the findings of the research and presented recommendations on best practice to enhance the effectiveness of probation.