“This workshop is an opportunity for us to learn from international experiences and use these to improve our penitentiary system, leading to a more secure society”, said Denys Chernyshov, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, when addressing executives of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine at the executive training “Drug Treatment and HIV Prevention in Prisons” that took place in Kiev from 8 to 9 November 2018.
He called on the participants to be active in the process of the ongoing penitentiary reform, which also includes future plans to introduce Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in prisons. Drug policy experts from Israel, Republic of Moldova, Germany and Slovenia presented practical recommendations that they developed together with medical, social care, security and probation staff working in six Ukrainian prisons during a three-day workshop in Kiev from 5 to 7 November 2018.
Robert Teltzrow, Principal Project Consultant of the Council of Europe’s Pompidou Group urged the Minister to take “immediate steps to implement opiate substitution treatment and drug overdose prevention programmes to reduce HIV infections and deaths in the countries prisons”. More than 50 participants attended the two events, that were organised by the Pompidou Group in the framework of its Criminal Justice and Prison Programme.
Related news:
HIV prevention and drug treatment in European prisons: training in Ukraine
