What are the global perspectives on incarceration, its adverse effects, and alternatives to detention? In collaboration with Justice Reform Initiative and Penal Reform International, EuroPris is hosting a webinar on 1 December. During the webinar, there will be presentations and discussions addressing the use of incarceration as a measure to solve problems that are often caused by social inequalities, including limited access to welfare services such as education and drug treatment. This event is open to all justice professionals interested.

What constitutes good or effective reintegration? What does a ‘successful’ transition from custody to the community look and feel like? What can we learn from research and practice in this regard? Corrections are not only about the time spent in prison. Since most of the people that we incarcerate are released and returned back to their communities at some point, a significant task of criminal justice agencies is also to focus on this eventual ‘return’. For this symposium, we welcome both evidence-based and practice-informed discussions of how meaningful re/integration can be achieved. EuroPris and ICPA, in collaboration with the Portuguese Reintegration and Prison Service (DGRSP) will organise on 27-30 March 2023 in Porto, Portugal the 3rd International Correctional Research Symposium (CRS) on Rehabilitating Reintegration: Research and Reflections on What Works. Call for Papers announcement will be sent in the coming week.

How can time in prison be used constructively to safeguard the transition to society? What specific needs must be addressed? On November 23-24, EuroPris and CEP are organising a workshop in Bucharest, Romania, to increase awareness of the need for interagency cooperation and to find solutions supporting this agenda. This workshop will focus on solutions for specific groups, such as persons with mental disorders, foreign nationals, and the Roma community. If you are interested, visit the event page to view the agenda, logistical information and registration. Register by 14 November.

Eugenia van Engelenhoven started working as a new Office/Events Manager at EuroPris in October 2022, replacing Andreea Roman, who was working as an interim for 5 months. Eugenia is a sociologist with a German and Russian background. Prior to her new position at EuroPris, she worked as an office and event manager in the field of academic management in Germany. In her previous roles, she managed international meetings, workshops, and conferences for experts and researchers as well as the secretariats of the ‘Graduate Centre for Social Sciences, Law and Economics', and later the ‘Women's and Equal Opportunity Commissioner’ of the Giessen University, Germany. Eugenia will be the first point of contact for the EuroPris secretariat, and your contact partner for EuroPris events and KMS queries.

Contact Eugenia via this email address:

The Children of Prisoners expert group is about to finalise its activities (2019-2022). The rationale for this group was to support member states in the implementation of Council of Europe Recommendation on Children of Imprisoned Parents. The group achieved content-rich and valuable results. The prominent outputs are: an Implementation Guidance Report which evolved out of four subgroups working on focused areas; an additional chapter will be published soon on Lessons Learned during Covid. Also, a Data Collection Matrix with a country overview about counting the number of affected children. Furthermore, a Table of Recommendations with the progress and implementation status of each country per each article was created. Finally, a video on reflecting the recommendations to promote them was done as well as a video on data collection was provided. The last action of the group will be sending a letter on 20 November, World Children’s Day to all national responsible authorities to spread the content of the recommendation.

On 29 September, EuroPris organised a webinar on "Quick solutions to increase prison capacity" and was kindly co-hosted by the Belgian Prison Service. Overcrowding is an increasingly widespread and common problem in Europe in places of detention. In many countries, it is a very serious concern, impacting possibilities for rehabilitation and reintegration. The topic of this webinar was on short-, medium- and long-term solutions to manage overcrowding by increasing prison capacity. The presentations were recorded and are available on the event page. Click on the event page to view videos and presentations in pdf format.

Join this free symposium on 15 December 2022 taking place in Brussels on Sports in Prison, a step towards rehabilitation. ‘Sports in Prison, a Plan for the Future’ (SPPF) is an Erasmus + project that focuses on the development of good sports programmes with a stronger connection between the 'outside world' and the world inside the prison walls. Over the past three years, their collaborative partnership has been working hard to better understand sports programs in prisons, and in particular how these programs can contribute to social integration. During the symposium, the project partners will present research publications, as well as the development, testing, and implementation of the learning areas and the evaluation thereof. They will also presnet a toolkit and policy recommendations. The symposium will integrate interactive methods to provide information to the participants, and actively involve them to hear their perspectives about the project results. Click below to read more about the event.