Jan Kleijssen, Director, Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate, Council of Europe, Vivian Geiran, Chair of the Council for Penological Co-operation (PC-CP), Jörg Jesse, Vice-Chair of the PC-CP and Mykola Gnatovsky, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), underlined the need to have agreed standards at European level regarding staff selection, recruitment and training, this being of great importance in order to ensure good prison and probation management and satisfactory treatment of inmates and of persons under probation supervision.
This is the first time staff issues have been discussed at a Conference of Directors of Prison and Probation Services with the 150 participants attending showing a lot of interest. There is still a discrepancy between the public image of prison and probation work and its important social role. Therefore intelligent, self-confident staff with good communication and inter-personal skills need to be attracted, and held on to, in order to raise the status of their service and the quality of their work. Participants have shared modern recruitment techniques and selection criteria, as well as team building and leadership development.
The Conference adopted conclusions sending a joint message to the national authorities and the Council of Europe.