Supporting the Ukrainian prison system in the process of shifting from a punitive to rehabilitative approach is among the Council of Europe's priorities. In that context, efforts are made to address the increasing demand for social rehabilitation programmes within the Ukrainian penitentiary system.

Within this framework, a Methodological Handbook to the rehabilitation programme "Problem Solving as a Transferrable Skill for Prisoners" was presented to the national stakeholders and international partners on 21 October 2021.

Developed and piloted with the support of the Council of Europe, the Programme helps prisoners in developing life-saving problem-solving skills to prevent illegal behaviour and to prepare them for release.

The event was opened by Ms Olena Vysotska, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Mr Andriy Kostin, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Mr Steen Nørlov, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

Ms Vysotska, noted that 2021 is a "year of resocialisation" of convicts and that the Programme is needed to be used on a daily basis". She thanked the SPERU Project for supporting the Ukrainian authorities in this regard.

Mr Kostin emphasised that "Rehabilitation of convicts serves as effective prevention of recidivism. Therefore, an extremely important task is the development of skills of analysis and solving life problems by convicts. After all, this will help them not only to avoid offences in the future but also will make our society safer".

"We believe that the Handbook will contribute to the creation of a favourable climate in penitentiary institutions to develop a more rehabilitative approach, where resocialisation will be considered as a principle," said Mr Nørlov, who awarded the certificates on completion of the Programme to the MoJ leadership (14 male and 10 female participants).

The SPERU Project published an e-version of the Handbook on the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine webpage and printed 100 copies for distribution in penitentiary institutions.

The event was organised within the framework of the EU and Council of Europe Joint Project "Support to Prison Reform in Ukraine - SPERU", which is designed to promote human rights compliant management of prisons, including better alignment of prison healthcare provisions with European standards.