Five study visits

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.