On February 8, 2022, the European experience in attracting prisoner labour on examples of Germany, the United Kingdom and Romania (the CoE member states) was presented in Kyiv. According to the reports of international consultants, the Handbook “European experience in attracting prisoner labour (Germany, United Kingdom and Romania)” was published.

The event was organised within the framework of the Joint project "The European Union and the Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine (SPERU)", on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and in cooperation with the State Department for Execution of the Criminal Sanctions.

Steen Nørlov, Head of the Council of Europe Office Ukraine, in his welcoming speech noted that the Council of Europe continues assisting Ukraine to enhance resocialization and reintegration of the prisoners in line with the European standards and best practices.

Steen Nørlov emphasized that the CoE recommendations and reports are based on understanding that the position of work is a central element of resocialization. 

“Council of Europe Office in Ukraine welcomes the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine initiative to create an optimal model for attracting prisoner labour in Ukraine and to devote the year of 2022 to reforming and developing prison workshops and other facilities for the employment of prisoners. We believe that this information will enable the Ministry to account on the best European practices while elaborating the Ukrainian model of attracting prisoner labour and tailoring it according to the national needs,” he said.

Olena Vysotska, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, noted that acquaintance with European experience will help Ukraine to develop an effective model of engagement the prisoners in labor activity, considering the mentality, local legislation, and features of the penitentiary system.

"We need to involve convicts in labor, because we believe that they would be more motivated if they knew how to earn honestly, and had some capital when be released," she added.

CoE international consultants Pascal Decarpes (Germany), Christopher Ian Frost (Great Britain) and Ionna-Mikaela Morar (Romania) shared their knowledge on attracting prisoner labour in their countries. While the presentation, the CoE experts also focused on:

• the process of ensuring that prison industries and workshops prepare prisoners more effectively for available jobs.
• prison education and training on basic and key skills and relevant vocational qualifications to equip prisoners for available jobs.
• more effective engagement with the business and voluntary sectors and with other departments and agencies.
• development of regimes and resettlement policy, standards and delivery on providing a better transition from custody to life in the community.

Germany

In Germany the national average employment rate in prisons is around 60% of prisoners - but this includes occupational therapy measures as well as vocational and school training.

Pascal Decarpes in his presentation noted the importance of documenting and certifying all periods of work (as well as school education and vocational training). As he said it has a positive impact on the prisoner´s attitude during the detention, motivates them to attend such activities and supports them while searching employment or educational measures once released.

The importance of being able to sell products produced in detention to consumers and companies outside the prison was underlined. It improves the production quality and prisoners´ motivation, strengthens the population´s trust into prison authorities, tackles negative attitudes of the population toward prisoners, facilitates prisoner´s reintegration into the labour market, reinforces financial capacities of prison facilities.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom employment upon release is now an important priority for many of the 79,000 prisoners who are held in custody in the HM Prison Service establishments, as well as nearly 10,000 prisoners in the Services of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Christopher Ian Frost identified three models of employment:

• Social Enterprise Model (community based charity to collect and sell; recycling bicycles, washing machines for repair and spares; low cost for tools and equipment; prisoners involved in the organization of the enterprise)
• Partnership model (partnering businesses which value employing prisoners upon release and gain positive publicity from it, partners which help in the organization of prison workshops and having the need for inexpensive equipment, prisoners are better motivated as after selected for the scheme they look forward to employment upon release)
• Contract model (for prison industries that require low costs in equipment such as screen printing and recycling (wire, plastics); equires business model to be adopted, developing good relationships with the world of business and developing expertise in business; requires to pay real wages to prisoners to comply to competition rules; identifying suitable workshops as commercial enterprises using criteria based on the ‘market opportunities’, running costs, future investment needs etc.; hanging or closing workshops that do not meet the criteria, ensuring prison regimes are more compatible with the needs of workshops, developing effective relationship with the outside business community, adopting new models for workshops (social enterprise and partnerships).

The expert also said that the workshops in British penitentiaries need to be renovated. It is necessary to change or close workshops that do not meet modern criteria, to ensure greater compliance of prison regimes with the needs of workshops, as well as to adopt new models for workshops (social enterprise and partnership).

Romania

Ioana-Mikaela Morar is convinced that the ability of prisoners to earn money after release is one of the solutions to prevent re-offending, but it follows that socio-professional realization of the once integrated is a complex and time-consuming process.

According to the expert, the positive results can be achieved through the consistent combined vocations of prisons and community institutions / organizations, including businesses. It is important to work on increasing of motivation of prisoners to take an active part in work - for example, to develop regulations on incentives for work, to introduce benefits and conditions of parole in view of the work done and (or) education, etc.

In Romania, there are Job fairs for prisoners, the aim of which is to stimulate the interest of economical agents regarding the labour force provided by inmates, and to increase the employment opportunities for inmates during detention, and after release. Labour and vocational training is approached multidisciplinary, complementary, aiming at developing the capacity of the custodial individuals to earn – in a correct, honest way – their living after release - one of the crucial factors for not reoffending.

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During a discussion of reports and international experts’ presentations, Valery Kalivoshko, head of the Resocialization and Social Rehabilitation Department of the State Department for Execution of the Criminal Sanctions, said that one of the problems in engaging prisoners in labor activities in Ukraine is their low qualifications.

"According to statistics, up to 10% of convicts in Ukraine do not even have a general secondary education (and there are even those who can not read and write), and before involving them in work, we must provide them with secondary education," he said.

Iryna Nesyn, Deputy Head of the State Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions, reminded that the number of working prisoners in Ukraine is currently only 25%, so we need to find ways to improve this situation.

"Today we are working with different companies, looking for potential investors; we plan to draw them in with bonuses and interesting offers to create more jobs for prisoners," she added.

Olga Derkach, the Senior officer of the Joint Project “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine (SPERU)", thanked the experts and participants for the presentation.

"We’ve been convinced today that the issue of involving prisoners in labor activities is extremely important, so we have a lot of to work on. And this is not our last meeting because the Project plans to join further assistance in this direction," she said.

The presentation was held in a hybrid (online and offline) format. The event was attended by about 40 representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the State Department for  Execution of the Criminal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice, its Interregional departments, the Probation Center, SURGE and NORLAU projects, EUD, ICRC and others.

The EU and Council of Europe Joint Project “Support to Prison Reform in Ukraine – SPERU” is designed to promote human rights compliant management of prisons, including better alignment of prison healthcare provisions with European standards.

Photo credits: Council of Europe in Ukraine