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

The Council of Europe implements 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 is 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 Criminal Law Cooperation Unit will address 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 will focus 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 will be 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 is 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 Kick off meeting and launch of a new project in Slovenia

On 04 November, a 24 months joint Council of Europe/European Union Project, on “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff”, was launched, presenting the overall objectives to the local partners and beneficiaries.

The Project will support the national authorities to improve the regulatory and operational framework of criminal justice in the areas of juvenile justice (Component I) and penitentiary (Component II). Criminal Law Cooperation Unit will support Prison Administration within the second Component of the project in the following 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 Minister of Justice, Mr Marjan Dikaučič, expressed his full support to the project and highlighted the importance of Council of Europe and European Union support to the criminal justice reforms.

The launching event was followed by the Advisory Group meeting of Component I (penitentiary). Both the activity plan and the expected main outcomes of the project were presented by the Project Team. This was followed by discussions during which the participants exchanged their views on the proposed interventions, shared feedbacks and provided recommendations.

This project is funded by the European Union via the Technical support instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission.

Slovenia 04 November 2021