In view of addressing radicalisation in prisons in the country, and in light of the findings from the assessment mission carried out earlier in 2018, a working group (WG) composed of ten representatives from the Directorate for Execution of Sanctions (DES) at the Ministry of Justice and prison staff working in the area of rehabilitation and prison police was established in the course of June 2018.

On 27 June few WG members and two Council of Europe international consultants visited Prison Stip where they met with the prison management and the prison staff working in the area of rehabilitation in order to discuss the issue of identification and assessment of radicalised inmates, to identify the shortcomings in their current treatment and to consider the best ways to further tackle radicalisation in prisons. On 28-29 June 2018 the WG had its first meeting in Skopje at which they discussed the development of a screening tool and methodology for development of individual treatment plans for radicalised sentenced persons.

The visit to prison Stip and the first WG meeting were organised within the scope of the Action “Strengthening the protection of the rights of sentenced persons”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey” and implemented by the Council of Europe.