The mission of staff of prison services and probation agencies is to contribute to public safety by ensuring safe, secure and humane management of detainees and the provision of opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration. In addition to their professional status, staff of penitentiary and probation services should receive adequate training to equip them with a sound understanding of their mission, duties and the ethical requirements of their work, as well as the skills required to master their daily professional routine as well as extraordinary situations.

These were among the the main issues discussed at the multilateral meeting on recruitment, training and professional development of prison and probation staff held on 4-5 April 2023 in Strasbourg. Representative of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Marica Bender from our Office have used this opportunity to present the specific training structure for prison staff in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The structure is based on the institutional - and more traditional training programme for prison staff, while the CoE contribution complements it with the competence based programme focusing on human rights of detainees and prisoners. Respect for human rights of persons deprived of liberty equally protects prison staff from allegations of ill-treatment.

The Council of Europe's previous work in BiH in this area resulted with the designing of training modules for delivering probation tasks in prisons aiming to prepare prisoners for a law abiding life after release from custody. The follow up activities in this area are expected to continue in the near future.

The meeting in Strasbourg with its open discussion and experience exhange between the colleagues from European jurisdictions contributed significantly to a better understanding of the impact that training has on the implementation by prison and probation staff of human rights standards in their daily work, and how it helps them adopt a more positive, professional and efficient approach in their services.