HF II Albania - Enhancing the protection of Human Rights for prisoners

Building upon the results achieved from the implementation of the first phase of European Union and Council of Europe programmatic framework “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey” (Horizontal Facility), the new Action “Enhancing the protection of human rights of prisoners in Albania” assisted the Albanian authorities to further enhance prison reform and the protection of the human rights of prisoners. It was implemented in close partnership with the Ministry of Justice, the Directorate General of the Prison Administration and with other relevant institutions and stakeholders, including civil society organisations active in the penitentiary field.

The Action covered four main areas:

Introduction of the effective human resources and sustainable training programme for prison management;
Strengthening the provision of health care to prisoners with a particular focus on detainees with mental disorders and the implementation of suicide prevention strategy;
Strengthening the process of rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners with a particular focus on the implementation of a standard system of risk management;
Improvements in the treatment of vulnerable groups of prisoners, in particular high risk /violent prisoners, sex offenders and female prisoners.

The Action was completed on 31 December 2022, with an overall budget of 640,000 EUR.

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Back Initiating the Piloting of the Risk and Needs Assessment tools for Individual Sentence Planning in three Albanian prisons

The Council of Europe is working together with the General Directorate of Prison Administration (GDPA) and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Albania to further strengthen the capacities of the rehabilitation staff in its prisons. As part of these efforts, a 2-day online training took place with selected staff from three prisons, designated to pilot the Risk and Needs Assessment (RNA) tools for Individual Sentence Planning, namely Fier, Peqin and “Ali Demi” prisons. The training was also attended by officials of the GDPA in order to build in-house capacities for future trainings.

The training was conceptualised as on-the-job coaching session, providing the participants with enhanced skills on unified and systematic application of the prisoner’s risk and needs assessment methodology for the purpose of developing individualised reintegration plans, therefore facilitating prisoner’s rehabilitation. It also offered insight on motivational interviewing, evidence-based data collection and progress recording, thus providing an avenue to move away from the ad hoc approach which has characterised these interventions so far.

The piloting of these tools will last up to four months with a view of extending its application to other prison facilities. A number of follow-up training sessions are planned to take place in 2021 covering rehabilitation programmes and techniques, development of daily regimes, and pre-release plans.

This activity was organised within the scope of the Action “Enhancing the protection of human rights of prisoners in Albania”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe.

1-2 December 2020