Criminal Justice Platform Europe Summer Course 2020 - 2021 on Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence (CANCELLED)

Launched in 2012 with the aim to create a new method of collaborating, the Criminal Justice Platform Europe (CJPE ) is a partnership of three network organisations working in the fields of detention (EuroPris), Probation (Confederation of European Probation, CEP) and European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) to reduce re-offending and the impact of crime and to improve methods of working with victims, communities and offenders throughout Europe.

Very few offences stir up such strong feelings as those committed by violent sexual offenders. Communities are fearful. The media often vengeful. Politicians speak mainly of punishment.

The lasting damage inflicted upon victims can be devastating. How can their voices be heard? Can wrongs be put right? Is prison the only answer? How can professionals who work with such offenders retain balance and hope and effective practice? Walking the tight rope of risk management… We live in the age of #metoo with highly sexualised images bombarding us from every angle and yet, when people make mistakes, or have sexual identity problems, or commit sex offences, the immediacy of judgement, is bitter and relentless. To work in a prison or a community setting with sex offenders often draws suspicion from colleagues, let alone the general public.

So this event is a unique international opportunity to meet professionals, from other countries, from different disciplines, from a range of backgrounds to share and to learn from people doing the same work. The focus will be upon practice: what works – new ideas – restorative methods – preventing reoffending – research – workshops – practice visits – sharing experience. The aim is that participants bring their expertise and, through engaging with the courses, are better equipped and informed about current approaches and effective interventions. The event will be demanding, but rewarding, for the individual practitioner and the organisations they represent.

Each organisation member of CJPE will address the main topic from a different but complementary angle:

The European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EuroPris) will focus on ethics in management and treatment of individuals sentenced for a sexual offense.

The Confederation of European Probation (CEP) will explore the better understanding of sexual abuse to create effective policy and practice.

The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) will look how to include victims and use restorative justice approaches to respond to sexual violence.

By sharing ideas and considering the very latest research and programmes, participants will be stimulated to engage with the debate on how to respond to sexual violence. Methods will include training, presentations and discussions among the participants. The aim is to examine key practice issues, inspire new thinking, promote cross-fertilization and build new networks to improve services and practice in prisons, probation and restorative justice. The variety of the group, coming from different European realities, will provide further opportunities to learn and engage in criminal justice issues.

The Summer Course consists of plenary sessions, four seminars, five study visits and three parallel workshops. During registrations, participants will be asked to choose which workshops, seminar and study visit they would like to attend.

This Summer Course includes four parallel seminars (Wednesday 8 July, 16:30-17:30). Three of the seminars will be conducted by the leaders of the three parallel workshops and will give an impression of the main issues that the three sectors – prison, probation, restorative justice – are dealing with when it comes to sexual violence. The fourth seminar will be provided by the Catalonian Prison Service presenting information about its sex offenders intervention model and the implementation of the Circles of Support and Accountability programme in Catalonia.

Note: during registrations, participants will be asked to indicate their 1st and 2nd most preferred options; depending on the number of persons registered for a seminar, they may be allocated to the second chosen option.

1 - Prison and sexual violence with Marianne Fuglestved and Nicholas Blagden

2 - Probation and sexual violence with Kieran McCartan and Hanna Lena Merdian

3 - Restorative justice and sexual violence with Vincent Mercer and Kristel Buntinx

4 - The sex offenders’ intervention model in the Catalan Prison System and the Circles of Support and Accountability programme with Carlos Soler, Deputy Director General of Rehabilitation and Health Programmes, Secretariat of Criminal Sanctions, Rehabilitation and Victim Support, Ministry of Justice

The aim of this seminar is to present the framework and practice of the intervention with sex offenders at the Prison Services of Catalonia and to discuss with the participants the main traits that a comprehensive model of treatment, reintegration and reoffending prevention should include. In Catalonian prisons, the first sex offenders’ treatment program started in 1995 in two prisons. Since then, many important developments have taken place: the extension of the treatment to all ordinary prisons, the evaluation of the program’s effectiveness, applied research in the context of Catalonian population has been conducted as well as the revision and improvement of the structure and contents of the treatment program. The implementation of the Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) program is one of the results of such revision and improvement. Moreover, some elements of the prison system, such as the open regime or risk assessment, have been relevant to develop a comprehensive intervention and to the risk management of this special group of offenders. As part of the seminar, participants will be aware of the key elements for an effective management of sex offenders within the context of Catalan prison services and probation and will learn about the implementation specificities of the CoSA programme in a local community.

Our local organising team put together a list of five different local study visits (Thursday 9 July 8:30/9:00-12:00).

Participants will be able to attend one among these options:

1 - CoSA from within
The Fundation Health and Community (Fundació Salut i Comunitat) is a non-profit organization in Barcelona that collaborates with the Secretariat of Criminal Sanctions, Rehabilitation and Victim Support of the Catalan Ministry of Justice in the implementation of the Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) scheme. This project has been implemented in Catalonia since 2013 with the aim of improving the strategies to prevent sexual reoffending. Over these years a number of circles have been run by professional coordinators and volunteers from the community who have received a specialised training. The visit will consist of an informal meeting with the circle coordinators and the volunteers of the inner circle. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the practical aspects of the development of a circle and to exchange impressions with coordinators and volunteers about their particular experiences along their involvement in the project and about their views on how CoSA works to prevent recidivism with these types of crimes.

2 - Open Prison Barcelona
The Open Prison Barcelona, located at the outskirts of the city, is meant for inmates who have been progressed to the third degree of the prison treatment. It can host up to 300 inmates who only spend the night in the prison, and 60 of those inmates who are under article 86.4 of the prison regulations and therefore only go to the centre for follow-up interviews with the treatment professionals. The mission of such open regime type of facility is to foster the social reintegration skills and capacities of inmates by providing them support and advice for their resettlement process as well as by liaising with the community agencies. Consequently, one of the axes of the treatment teams work in an open prison is to liaise with community agencies and stakeholders in order to coordinate their respective courses of action for every inmate. In addition, the Open Prison is also responsible for four “dependent units” which are located in different municipalities nearby and seek to bring the inmate closer to their own community. The inmates eligible to be placed in the Open Prison Barcelona are those who require specialised intervention with regard to sexual violence, gender violence and traffic safety crimes. Inmates with special intellectual needs and inmates between 18-25 years old can also be transferred to this open prison. Participants will visit the facilities and will meet the prison professionals who are responsible for the follow-up of the inmates sentenced for sexual violence related crimes and learn about the type of work carried out at this stage. The CerclesCat programme is one of the interventions being implemented and such professionals are part of the outer Circle and meet regularly with the Circle’s coordinator to report on the progress of the core member.

3 - Women’s prison (Centre Penitenciari de Dones de Barcelona)
Pre-registered participants will be able to visit the facilities of one of the 2 prisons for women in Catalonia which is located in the city of Barcelona and can be reached by metro. This prison hosts up to 270 women who are in closed and semi-open regimes. Despite being an old facility, it conveys a positive atmosphere due to the rehabilitation programmes that are being implemented with female inmates and the fact that it is home to a unique unit for mothers and their children.

4 - City of Justice
The City of Justice is a complex that consists of eight buildings, seven of which host the courthouses of the civil, criminal and juvenile justice jurisdictions. It is also home to other related services such as the Victim Support Office, restorative justice services, pre-trial advisory teams, probation teams and the family mediation services amongst others. Pre-registered participants will visit some of the judicial facilities and will also have the opportunity of being briefed by the professionals of the Restorative justice teams. Practitioners of the adults’ and juveniles’ schemes will introduce how the respective programmes work, the type of crimes referred as well as the restorative practices mostly used.

5 - PrevenSI project
PrevenSI is a new specialized resource for the prevention of child sexual abuse that arises from the union between the Institute of Forensic Psychology (IPF), the Institute Intress and the IRES Foundation. PrevenSI is inspired by other innovative international experiences, including the Stop It Now! program, PrevenTell, StopSO or the Dunkelfeld Prevention Project. The tools with which it deploys its activities are organized and coordinated through a specialized web platform, with an online chat and a telephone line for attending people who are worried or aware of cases of child sexual abuse, paedophiles and/or child molesters, as well as professionals who work or attend these types of demands. The visit will take place in an attractive space with a dynamic presentation. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the platform and the awareness campaign, as well as interact with the technical staff that attends to the cases.

Each organisation invites experts in the field of sexual violence, to lead a series of 8 workshop sessions focusing either on prison, or probation, or restorative justice. During registrations you will be asked to chose which of the three workshops is more interesting for your work.

The role of prison and probation services for persons convicted of a sexual offense, is, as for other persons under their responsibility, double: to execute a penal sanction and to manage and rehabilitate. There is an ongoing and extensive international research on assessment, management and effective interventions for this group of offenders. Evidence based assessment and a coherent management plan that incorporates health, social, psychological and behavioral factors is considered best practice to prevent reoffending. Informed consent and cooperation are central to risk assessment and their risk-and-needs management plan, as are considerations concerning safe accommodation under imprisonment. This workshop will look at how to create a safe environment in prison, risk assessment, intervention programs, interagency cooperation and supervision and assistance of staff working with sex offenders.

TRAINERS

Marianne Fuglestved - Psychologist, Prison and Probation Service, Denmark
Nicholas Blagden - Co-Head Sexual Offences Crime and Misconduct Research Unit, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Sexual abuse is a complex and multi-faceted issue, which means that there is not always a simple or straightforward solution. This workshop will focus on the research and practice evidence base related to people who commit sexual offences and allow participants to consider the causes, consequences and responses to sexual abuse in a rounded, multi-disciplinary fashion. The workshop will consider the psychology of sexual offending behaviour across a range of offences and populations considering what that means for prevention, treatment and reintegration at a practice as well as policy level. In addition, the workshop will ask the participants to consider the real world challenges of responding to sexual offending from a public protection and community engagement angle so that they can develop appropriate responses in their home jurisdictions. The workshop will be a combination of research evidence and professional best practice that enables the participants to receive a rounded experience.

TRAINERS

Kieran McCartan - Professor in Criminology, University of the West of England, Bristol University, UK
Hanna Lena Merdian - Associate Professor at Department of Psychology, University of Lincoln, UK

There is a lot to be learnt about sexual violence from the people directly affected by it. The aim of the workshop is to inspire people in working with victims and offenders of harmful sexual behaviour in a restorative justice way. Experiences in research and practice prove that it is not only possible but also relevant to offer restorative justice in those serious and complex cases. By explaining methods, showing figures, telling about personal experience, storytelling, using case studies and experiential learning exercises, presenting projects and film screenings, participants will be introduced to the restorative justice models used in UK and in Belgium for working with victims and offenders of harmful sexual behavior. Much attention will be dedicated to risks and opportunities in restorative justice practices as a response to sexual violence, including historical abuse and intra-familial harmful sexual behaviour. The workshop will provide some answers and probably raise many more questions to finally look from a new angle at restorative justice in sex offences.

TRAINERS

Vincent Mercer - Restorative justice practitioner and researcher, AIM Project, UK
Kristel Buntinx - Senior victim-offender mediator, Moderator, Belgium

Criminal Justice Platform Europe Summer Course 2020 - 2021 on Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence (CANCELLED)

What is the CJPE?

Criminal Justice Summer Course 2020-2021: Responses to Sexual Violence (CANCELLED)

Programme

Plenaries "Responses to sexual violence"

Four seminars

Five study visits

Parallel workshops

Ethics in management and treatment of individuals sentenced for a sexual offense (Europris)

Better understanding of sexual abuse to create effective policy and practice (CEP)

Restorative justice and victims for understanding and responding to sexual violence (EFRJ)