SPPRH - Strengthening the prison and probation reforms, provision of health care and treatment of patients in closed institutions in the Republic of Moldova

The Project “Strengthening the prison and probation reforms, provision of health care and treatment of patients in closed institutions in the Republic of Moldova” (“SPPRH Project”) with the duration of 36 months (March 2021 – February 2024) is funded through and is in line with the strategic priorities for co-operation as formulated in the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova for 2021-2024.

The Project builds on the achievements of the previous Council of Europe Action Plans for the Republic of Moldova, notably, results of the projects implemented between 2015 and 2020, namely, the Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” (01 March 2018 – 28 February 2021) and the Project “Support of the Criminal Justice Reforms in the Republic of Moldova” (2015 – 2018). The Project is also focused on further consolidating the achievements of the Norwegian Mission of Rule of Law Advisers to Moldova (NORLAM) activities in country completed in June 2017.

The Project is aimed at supporting the enhancement of the prison management practices, the improvement of the quality of the provision of health care to inmates (including mental health care), supporting the probation in raising its profile, promoting the value of community sanctions and measures among all actors of the criminal justice system and strengthening of treatment programmes and protocols for patients in psychiatric establishments (including forensic patients).

Main intervention areas will cover policy/legal framework, institutional and practical implementation levels, and the expected results of this Project are the following:

Management of prisons is further improved to better support the prisoners’ rehabilitation: integrating modern prison management methodologies and tools, and further increasing the prison staff skills and knowledge on human rights of persons deprived of liberty;
Quality of the provision and organisation of health care services (including mental health care) for inmates are further enhanced in line with European standards: developing specialized tools, policies and improving the material medical conditions in prisons;
Strengthened institutional capacity of Probation Service and multidisciplinary co-operation with other actors through more effective implementation of community sanctions and measures in support of offenders’ social reintegration: strengthening the capacities of Probation to treat medium and high-risk offenders and fine-tuning the inter-institutional cooperation;
Strengthened treatment of patients in psychiatric establishments (including forensic patients) in line with European standards: enhancing the treatment programmes and protocols and improving the knowledge and skills of staff in applying them within multidisciplinary teams.

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Back Second Meeting of the Working Group for the development of Policies and Standard Operational Procedures for the prison system of the Republic of Moldova

Second Meeting of the Working Group for the development of Policies and Standard Operational Procedures for the prison system of the Republic of Moldova

The second meeting of the working group (WG) for the development of policies and standard operational procedures (SOPs) focused on four thematic areas - dynamic security, treatment of vulnerable groups of detainees, preventing and combating inter-prisoner violence (for prison frontline staff), and combating the expansion of the criminal subculture phenomenon in juvenile detention centres.

The sub-groups formed withing this WG presented the draft versions of policies and the pertinent SOPs developed so far - the SOPs on adaptation to custody, on communications, on multidisciplinary teams, on staff wellbeing, on responsibility for managing inter-prisoner violence, on dealing with bullying, on core prison day and on prisoner peer support. The progress reached in developing the policies and SOPs was broadly discussed and substantive consultations were provided on each document. At the operational level, the modus operandi for the next stages of the content development process were defined and the agenda for the next intermediary consultation session was discussed with WG members.

The working group meeting was facilitated by the Council of Europe consultants and was attended online by the management of the National Administration of Penitentiaries of Moldova (NAP) management, representatives of NAP specialised departments (security and penitentiary regime, social reintegration, human resources, institutional management, analytical and planning), directors from individual penitentiaries no.1 Taraclia, no.5 Cahul, no.7 Rusca, no. 10 Goian, no.11 Balti and no. 13 Chisinau, and heads of specialised units from these prisons (social reintegration, human resources, security and penitentiary regime).

The activity was organised online on 20-21 January 2022, under the auspices of the Project “Strengthening the prison and probation reforms, provision of health care and the treatment of patients in closed institutions in the Republic of Moldova”, financed through the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova (2021-2024) and implemented by the Council of Europe.

Moldova 25 January