EPTA: Cross border training in Ireland on Restorative Practices (2023)
EuroPris supports the European Penitentiary Training Academies Network (EPTA), which organised its first training on 17-18 May 2023, and was kindly hosted by Ireland and coordinated by Netherlands Helsinki Committee. The Cross-Border Training is part of the EPTA II project, which is co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme, the EPTA network is organizing in total 3 cross-border trainings, where selected EPTA members will be hosting training for participants from other EPTA member organizations.
In this training, 24 participants from 9 European countries gathered at the Irish Prison Service College in Portlaoise to undertake 2 days of training in Restorative Practices. Restorative practices are a language and practices that help to develop positive relationships in a community, understand each other‘s needs and perspectives, solve problems to prevent conflict from occurring and resolve conflict in a healthy way when it arises. It differs from restorative justice but appears in the CoE recommendation on Restorative Justice in criminal matters. In practice, different formats of Restorative Practices are used: language, conversations, circles, meetings and conferences.
Academy staff, deputy prison governors, psychologists and prison officers participated at the training. The EuroPris survey KMS on restorative programs was quoted by the Maynooth University trainers, Ian Marder and Joe Garrihy. Participants were guided by the lecturers and speakers through the two days with a combination of slides, exchanges, exercises and circles so that the learnings were able to get tested. Also, the participants had the chance to visit the prison next to the training academy, Midlands Prison. Lively discussions took place during these days as the training was very interactive, and communicative. Gathered in a circle, so as to reflect the RP and the training delivered by the Irish Prison Service College, the participants were asked by the group leaders and speakers to open and close each session by sharing something about themselves on a given topic or by giving their level of energy from 1 to 10. We would like to thank the Irish hosts for providing such successful training to the European colleagues. Click here to view the training report and the presentations.