Organised in co-operation with the National Administration of Penitentiaries of the Republic of Moldova, the Pompidou Group held its third study visit of its South-East Europe Co-operation Group on ‘Developing comprehensive drug treatment systems in prisons’ in Chisinau, on 3-5 October 2023.
The central theme of the visit was challenges and solutions in introducing/improving treatment structures targeting people with substance use disorders in prison, one of the network’s three priority topics. Some 50 policy makers and prison professionals from 11 South-East European countries, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine involved in treatment and rehabilitation of imprisoned people with drug use disorders participated in the event which was officially opened by the State Secretaries of the Ministry of Justice and Health as well as the Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Social Protection, Health and Family of the Republic of Moldova.
During the three days of an interesting and diverse programme, participants learned about the treatment concept in the Moldovan criminal justice system and visited prison No. 9 Pruncul where the only in-prison Therapeutic Community (TC) in the country has been operated for many years now. The exchange with the staff as well as directly with the residents of this treatment service provided participants of the study visit with an excellent first-hand experience. What was seen during the field visit was followed by lengthy discussions and exchanges of impressions, as well as work in small groups assessing potential strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats when embedding in-prison Therapeutic Communities in different national contexts.
In addition, the training needs of prison staff dealing with people with substance use disorders were addressed. Participants emphasised the need for continuous training based on a multidisciplinary approach towards rehabilitation of detained people with substance use disorders, and were open to discuss the structure, models and certifications of staff training existing in the respective countries as well as ways to motivate employees to engage in training. To this end, the Pompidou Group will publish in due time the ‘Mapping of training resources and available research in South-East Europe countries related to drug treatment and rehabilitation in prisons’.
Finally, participants were involved in the setting of thematic priorities for future activities within the framework of this Co-operation Group, which will further allow the Pompidou Group to better adapt its Criminal Justice and Health in Prison Programme to the needs of the participating countries and the common regional interest related to treatment and rehabilitation of people with substance use disorders in prisons.