Project

ARISA Child

Assessing the Risk of Isolation of Sentenced and Accused: Enhancing the Capacity of Correctional Services to Work with Convicted Children

Portfolio

International Judicial Cooperation

Timeframe

01/11/2022 – 30/04/2025 (30 months)

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Fostering capacity-building of European correctional services’ staff in their work with convicted children

Children sentenced for a crime rarely receive custodial sentences and are usually put under probation or other similar non-custodial measures. Simultaneously, for various reasons, they require different specific treatment and measures when serving a judicial sentence. This is particularly true for disadvantaged minors, namely from minority groups, with learning difficulties, suffering from disabilities or experiencing family problems.

In many countries, however, the implementation of probation for youngsters does not differ much from that for adults. Accordingly, there are often no specific programmes, measures, or other mechanisms that consider the characteristics of this group.

ARISA Child intends to tackle these issues by increasing the knowledge of the staff of correctional services on how to work with sentenced youngsters, respect their rights and address their particular needs. This will be achieved by developing and providing training to professionals working with institutionalised youngsters, as well as by promoting capacity-building activities tailored to these professionals’ needs.

Services

Where

Bulgaria
Greece
Italy
Spain
Portugal

Funding

European Commission Justice Programme (JUST-2022-JTRA)

Objectives

Assess the specific training needs of professionals working with institutionalised or sentenced youngsters, in close proximity with front-line personnel and administrative staff.

Promote cross-country experience-sharing and exchange of best and promising practices in respecting youngsters’ rights when implementing criminal sentences against them, in order to facilitate their personal development.

Provide correctional services with a state-of-the-art online training course on child-friendly execution of penal sanctions.

Expected outcomes

Improved knowledge of professionals on how to treat sentenced youngsters, respect their rights and address their special needs.

Enable professionals working with institutionalised youngsters to learn from the experience of others, transfer working practices and measures into their own settings and promote effective models among peers /countries.

Offer decision makers with evidence on how to improve national strategies on the training of correctional services concerning the execution of judicial sentences involving minors.

An increased understanding, by the correctional services staff, on how to treat all sentenced minors equally and prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion and other.