This project was co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the main partners, namely the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the State Department of Execution of Criminal Sanctions and other relevant national stakeholders of the penitentiary system in Ukraine.

SPERU+ aligns with the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026. Particularly, the Project addressed the objective of ‘continued support to the authorities in building modern prison and probation systems with a focus on shifting from punitive to rehabilitative approaches in the context of war and post-war recovery period’.

Building upon the successes of the EU and CoE Joint Project "Support the Prison Reform in Ukraine" (JP SPERU), SPERU+ strategically leverages the reform objectives outlined in Ukraine's "Strategy for Penitentiary Reform 2021-2026." The overarching goal was the creation of a humane penitentiary system that facilitates the social reintegration of inmates, through the following:

1. Further revision of existing/introduction of new principles of modern prison management, in line with Council of Europe standards and best practices, including addressing shortcomings identified in ECtHR judgements against Ukraine.
2. Improvement of the application of rehabilitation approaches and instruments to shift from a punitive to a more rehabilitative regime.

The project implementation ended in December 2023.