The Pompidou Group, with the support of its Italian Presidency, organised a study visit for a Georgian delegation of criminal justice professionals involved in drug prevention  on 29-31 May in Milan, ltaly.

The visit focused on sharing Italian experiences with rehabilitation and resocialisation services for juveniles and adolescents in the criminal justice context in the Lombardy region. 9 representatives from the Georgian National Agency for Crime Prevention and Probation, the Juvenile Referral Centre and the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia had the opportunity to visit several important facilities and meet with their Italian counterparts. With the objective of implementing and further developing similar services in Georgia, they learned about the available services tools and approaches used by psychologists, social workers, educators and a multidisciplinary team of specialists working with juveniles in contact with the criminal justice system and their families.

In the framework of the study visit, the Georgian delegation visited two outpatient addiction treatment facilities (SERD Accursio and SMI CAD), the advanced treatment department ‘’La Nave’’ at San Vittore Prison, the service for children and adolescents with drug and other dependencies “SPAZIO BLUE” and the therapeutic community “Kayros Onlus”. In addition, the delegation had a discussion with beneficiaries of “Spazio Blue” and ’’La Nave’’.

The study visit was organized as part of the Council of Europe project "Support to Penitentiary System Reforms in Georgia’’ , in follow-up to earlier assessment work prepared by the Pompidou Group on developing drug prevention-related programmes for the Juvenile Referral Centre in Georgia in 2023.