The 26th annual Council of Europe Conference of Directors of Prison and Probation Services “Gaining an Edge over the Pandemic” took place in Portugal on 20-21 September.
It considered the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of offenders and staff and the importance of the enhanced use of new technologies in the new circumstances.
Francisca Van Dunem, Minister of Justice of Portugal, opened the Conference, and Alan Mitchell, President of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), delivered the keynote speech. The panellists of the panel discussion related to the keynote speech were Rómulo Mateus, General Director of the Prison and Probation Services of Portugal, Jana Špero, Director General for the Prison System and Probation in Croatia, and Valérie Hazet, representative of the French prison system.
The conference programme included workshops on the topics of mental health and well-being of offenders and staff, managing persons accused or convicted of a sexual offence, COVID-19 related data collection and their interpretation, and the use of artificial intelligence by prison and probation services.
Director General Špero was accompanied by Martina Barić, Head of Division in the Directorate for Prison System and Probation and Croatian representative in the Council for Penological Co-operation (PC-CP), who participated in the conference as a workshop moderator.
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