SPERU+ Further Support the Prison Reform in Ukraine

This project was co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the main partners, namely the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the State Department of Execution of Criminal Sanctions and other relevant national stakeholders of the penitentiary system in Ukraine.

SPERU+ aligns with the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026. Particularly, the Project addressed the objective of ‘continued support to the authorities in building modern prison and probation systems with a focus on shifting from punitive to rehabilitative approaches in the context of war and post-war recovery period’.

Building upon the successes of the EU and CoE Joint Project "Support the Prison Reform in Ukraine" (JP SPERU), SPERU+ strategically leverages the reform objectives outlined in Ukraine's "Strategy for Penitentiary Reform 2021-2026." The overarching goal was the creation of a humane penitentiary system that facilitates the social reintegration of inmates, through the following:

Further revision of existing/introduction of new principles of modern prison management, in line with Council of Europe standards and best practices, including addressing shortcomings identified in ECtHR judgements against Ukraine.
Improvement of the application of rehabilitation approaches and instruments to shift from a punitive to a more rehabilitative regime.

The project implementation ended in December 2023.

Project documentation

Work plan (September - December 2023)

Useful information

Project news

Back Trainers trained on implementation of the Rehabilitation programme for prisoners with substance abuse in Ukraine

Nino LAPACHI

Modified 2 Years ago.

@ Council of Europe

On December 13, 2023, a three-day training for trainers on implementing a rehabilitation programme for prisoners who use psychoactive substances ended in Lviv, Ukraine.

The goal of the rehabilitation programme is to support prisoners in developing skills that will allow them to overcome a desire to use psychoactive substances, both during their stay in prison and after release. The program is designed for adult man and women prisoners in correctional institutions and remand centres of the State Department for Execution of the Criminal Sanctions of Ukraine.

During the ToT, 20 penitentiary psychologists learned to train their peers on delivery of the rehabilitation programme, which can be implemented both individually (in particular in the form of online classes) and in groups. The psychologists independently completed the tasks of the programme, mastered new material through the execution of scenarios and role-play exercises, tried themselves as trainers and exchanged experience in responding to problematic issues that arise during daily work with convicts.

The development of the Substance use rehabilitation programme for prisoners and a methodological guide to it, as well as the training of trainers was supported by the Joint Project "The European Union and the Council of Europe work together to support prison reform in Ukraine Plus (SPERU+)".

Ukraine 7-13 December 2023