Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff in Slovenia

The Council of Europe implemented a 24-month joint project to support Slovenia in its efforts to improve the justice system by pursuing two directions, i.e. two components of the project: Component I: introducing new legislation and policies that are in line with European standards and good practices in the juvenile criminal justice system, and Component II: improving the penitentiary system through enhanced training capacities of the prison administration and better human resources policy applied to the prison staff by the Slovenian Prison Administration.

The project was implemented transversally and jointly within two Council of Europe Directorates General: Component I – Directorate General of Democracy, Department of Children’s Rights Polices and Cooperation, Children’s Rights Division (to insert the link to the other component), and Component II – Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Police, Detention, Drugs and Addictions Department, Cooperation in Police and Deprivation of Liberty Division.

The Cooperation in Police and Deprivation of Liberty Division addressed through implementation of the Component II issues concerning the lack of organized education and training of prison staff, with the aim of improving the prisoners’ treatment. Slovenian penal practice remains orientated towards a humane treatment of prisoners with emphasis placed on an individual approach. Nevertheless, due to limited training capacities, the treatment of prisoners in practice faces several challenges. To this end, the project focused on the following three areas:

support to the introduction of a modern risk and needs assessment tool for the penitentiary,
development of key training and research entities and capacity building for Prison Administration,
increase of the professionalism of prison staff.

The project started on 1 September 2021 and was completed on 31 December 2023 with an overall budget of 700.000€ for Component II, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.

"This project was co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission"

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Back Exploring innovative ways to attract new staff for Slovenian Prison Administration

Identifying and recruiting prison staff remains a major challenge for all prison administrations across Council of Europe Members states, especially in the post-pandemic period. To address the lack of job applicants in Slovenia, the Council of Europe helped the national Prison Administration enrich the existing recruiting and awareness plan during a meeting held on 5 July 2023 in Ljubliana by:

- providing an analysis of the relevant Council of Europe standards and best European practices concerning the methodology and approaches to be used when reaching out to the public to attract new prison staff; in particular, the policies implemented and challenges faced by the three prison jurisdictions of the UK (Northern Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales) in attracting, recruiting and retaining prison staff;

- advising Slovenian Prison Administration on how to raise public awareness of the prison profession;

- offering recommendations that will be used for the development of a Public Relations policy and practices.

Successful and unsuccessful examples from other jurisdictions were also discussed with the aim of identifying which methods can better fit Slovenian priorities to attract prison staff and, eventually, improve their working conditions. A report with recommendations will summarize the findings of the meeting.

The Council of Europe supports the Slovenian Prison Administration within the framework of the project “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff” funded by the European Union via the Technical support instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission.

Slovenia 10 July 2023