A 4-day Training of Trainers (ToT) on assessment and management of Violent Extremist Prisoners (VEPs) for a group of 10 prison staff – future trainers, coming from the Special Detention Facility in Pozarevac and the County Prison in Belgrade took place in Vrsac, in Serbia.
The trainees increased their understanding on the utilisation of the VEP specific screening and risk and needs assessment tools and the individual rehabilitation methodology developed by the Action’s Working Group under the Beneficiary-specific component for Serbia. The ToT comprised on transferring the theoretical knowledge, and practical skills and methods that helped the trainees enhance their skills essential for the application of these instruments in practise and disseminating the know-how to their peers. They also learned how to approach and systematize information on VEP’s behaviour in an objective and evidence-based manner, how to formulate and create an individual treatment plan and motivate prisoners to actively take part in their rehabilitation.
The ToT laid the groundwork for preparing the trainees, comprised of prison management, security and rehabilitation and treatment service from both prisons, for the upcoming piloting phase in Serbian prisons due to begin in September 2021.
This hybrid activity was implemented under the auspices of the Action „Enhancing penitentiary capacities in addressing radicalisation in prisons in the Western Balkans “, Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey (2019 – 2022), funded by the European Union and Council of Europe and implemented by Council of Europe.