The Heads of Treatment Departments of all 29 Serbian penitentiary institutions met yesterday in Belgrade to discuss standardising the implementation of the current treatment programmes for prisoners and to learn about new ones which will be available as of next year. This was their 4th annual meeting; it was organised within the framework of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” action in Serbia.

In its previous two phases (ran between 2016 and 2022) the Action supported the development of five treatment programmes for group work with prisoners by selected prison treatment staff (psychologists, sociologists, andrologists) assisted by Council of Europe consultants. After piloting of the programmes and training of more than 200 treatment staff in their implementation, the five programmes have been delivered in all penitentiary institutions for the past two years.

In the current third phase of the Action (2022-2024), the Council of Europe continued supporting the Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions in creating new treatment programmes, based on the evolving needs: “Suicide and self-harm prevention programme“, “Good living skills programme“– mainly for juveniles but with a module for adults, “The empowerment of women programme with particular emphasis on victims of violence“ and “Assertive communication programme with a module for juveniles“.

Additionally, in order to ensure a better participation of all prison staff in implementation of the post-release programme on “Specialised and structured treatment and resocialisation of offenders serving long prison sentences (5+ years)“, the Heads of Treatment Departments got acquainted with the programme in detail and received additional instructions for its successful delivery, given its importance and complexity.

The meeting was organised within the framework of the Action “Enhancing the human rights protection for detained and sentenced persons in Serbia”, as a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”, implemented by the Council of Europe.