<< Objectives >>The pace of digital change in Europe's prisons is quickening but uneven. Front line staff may need to perform their jobs differently, and to reconsider the prisons rehabilitative mission. DIGIWG will facilitate exchange between actors both to develop a common understanding of where key challenges lie in digital prison transformation and change management, and to develop recommendations for decision makers to apply a structured approach to whole-prison digitalisation.<< Implementation >>1) In four sets of online working groups, the DIGICOR Digital Transition Working Group will facilitate and record structured knowledge transfer and exchange on the challenges of implementing digital transition, between actors with different experience, perspectives and mandates.2) We will peer review these outcomes in a workshop3) We will produce 3, jargon-free factsheets giving top priorities for digital readiness and resiliance of prison staff. 4) Support exchange throughout.<< Results >>4 reports detailing the practical nature of difficulty of digital change in prisons at each stage and possible predictors of digital resistance, specific to 4 areas of justice systems. 3 factsheets, addressing European policy level, national policy makers and local/ regional training and professional development educators. 1 project website and discussion board.Multiple dissemination channels

"Peer Pro-social Modelling in Probation (PPROMPT) project aimed to structure a peer pro-social modelling, through the development and implementation in probation systems enhancing both the competencies of management and probation experts to address offenders’ needs. Project targeted to explore and implement an approach that builds social capital and resilience within people that are under probational measures. The need for more innovation and effectiveness in working with offenders,the great potential of peer education and The EU recommendations around the peer education were the reasons behind implementing this project.Specific goals included:1. To develop andragogical materials (manuals and programme contents) that support training for both staff and management in the field of peer training and pro-social model interventions;2. To develop and pilot a ""train the trainer"" course for probation workers in each country, giving them the ability to train, continuously, selected well- behaved offenders on peer training and pro-social modelling;3. To train the selected pool of inmates in each country on pro-social modeling and peer training, under the supervision of the probation trainers4. To analyse the pilot sessions and revise the manuals accordingly before disseminating the programme. The Project covered building up a Peer Pro-Social Model Team, trained by the Probation staff - professionals of this field. The selected well-behaving offenders were trained on newly prepared Pro-Social Model Programme and were expected to work as peer trainers for the others. The project needed to be a multicultural one since;*Special attention should have been paid to the selection of peer volunteers, to ensure that they are appropriate for the role, have the right motivation to complete the training. *The topic had to be handled by a consortium, composed of different cultures, experience and practices. *The probation staff needed to be well-trained both on the techniques and the possible problems that may arise during implementation phase which needs a full co-operation. *Training probation staff supported the system's sustainability in all partner countries, where released offenders can be replaced by the new offenders trained by the probation staff. The outputs of the project are;*A need assesment survey on the present probation groupwork and semminar activities was done;*A report on literature review and analysis of best practices on peer training was prepared;*A report on meta-analysis of pro social modelling practices was developed;*A curriculum on peer pro-social modelling in probation systems was structured;*A manual on peer training was prepared;* PPROMPT Life Skills Training Programme was prepared (It is a cognitive behavoural program focusing on the most important criminogenic needs like criminal attitudes, decision making, offending behaviour, planning for the future, family life, leisure time. The programme is interactive, structured and gives answers to the needs of the probationers);*Train the trainer course material for probation experts was prepared;*22 probation experts coming from partner countries attended a 5 day ""training of the trainers programme"".*Train the trainer course for the offenders were held in 3 different countries;*In the piloting phase trained offenders in different countries delivered the newly prepared programme to other offenders under the supervision.*Under the dissemination activities, 3 national semminars were organized in Turkey, Romania and Portugal.*Total number of adults who have benefited from the project added up to approximately 1000 persons.As a result of the PPROMPT Project:*A Peer Pro-Social Model system was structured for the Probation System.*The efficiancy of the groupworks and semminar programmes were increased.*The capabilities of the staff working for the Probation System were improved.*New methods on the rehabilitation and the reintegration of the offenders were structured and tried within the system. *The service quality in the Probation System of the partner countries was increased.The following actions to be taken in future will be adjusting the program in the light of the lived experience and evaluations , expanding the program to other probation services and other correctional settings and distributing the program to other probation services across Europe."

For inmates, the advantages of participating to education and training activities are multiple. Being usually low educated and without qualifications, they gain confidence, and by acquiring basic competences, and developing transversal and vocational skills, they increase their chances to be employed when they are free. Yet, access to employment is one of the conditions for a sound rehabilitation in autonomy, while reducing the risk of recidivism. But training opportunities may be limited because not all prisons have the technical premises needed to provide vocational courses. And, if there are some opportunities, prisoners may be reluctant to participate or may drop out after a while.Virtual Reality for Training Inmates (ViRTI) wants to act on these two limiting factors: 1) by creating virtual environments it is possible to compensate a lack of laboratories, material or tools; 2) by introducing interactive features and gamification in the learning content, it is possible to attract more participants and to maintain their motivation thus reducing dropping out rates.ViRTI gathers four partners, one expert of prison systems, two education and training centers with a long experience in training inmates and one developer of interactive learning content experienced in virtual reality. Together they will:- analyse the potential of virtual reality for education and training in prisons and specify some use cases- develop an interactive gamified training path in the construction sector, using virtual reality based on 360° videos- pilot it in three different prison contexts: short term convicts, juvenile justice centre and detention centres welcoming prisoners sentenced to more than one year with positive perspectives for rehabilitation.- provide guidelines to 1) Penitenciary administrations, 2) Funding bodies, 3) Educators and trainers, 4) Learning content and technology providers; so that they are able to introduce virtual reality tools for training prisoners. Then, more virtual reality based content can be used in prisons, and more prisons will introduce it in collaboration with education and training providers and more inmates will benefit from its added value. They will develop skills and competences, acquire knowledge of economic sectors lacking workforce, increasing their chances to be employed. This is applicable for the participating countries as all results will be available in French, Spanish, Catalan, Greek, Portuguese. The English versions disseminated will allow a transfer to any other country.

"1) Background of the project: The background of DIACEN is criminal correctional justice, a setting that all partners know very well and work with. The project coordinator, and some of the partners have started cooperating on topic of the pre-release programs in prison, since the Lifelong Learning Program, and still do so within ERASMUS. DIACEN is such an example, corssing through two programatic periods and scafolding on lifelong learning experiences. DIACEN team ran surveys in Romania, Portugal, Poland and Italy, with the help of several specific prisons and the national Administrations. It was a qualitative research, focused on the perspective of the professionals and the personal experiences of those interacting with prison settings. Conclusions included: there was no apparent organized direct involvement of correction staff with inmates geared toward release planning; all the staff interviewed felt inmates were interested in pre-release programs and all staff indicated they felt the local community should be involved in pre-release programs.In this context, we based DIACEN around the idea that dialogue is a powerful method for delivering adult education. Building a community around authentic interaction could reduce massively the relapse / re-offend rates of the prisoners. The inmates need a programme for pre-release where all interested parties meet and develop together a solution with the motto: “Nothings for me that is made without me”. Elements of the pre-release programme for inmates we developed within the context:•The prison as a learning environment;•The education, social work, security staff, prisoner and the local community sit around the table and set a learning pathway for reintegration in the pre-release period;•A European framework and method built with the expertise of 5-member states and several networks;•Methods for community development and public policy consultation which capture the assets of a local community, preparing it to receive the ex-prisoner and acknowledge his / her capabilities and needs.2) Objectives:Put on public agenda the adult education that takes place in the prison settingsShow how experiencing adult education will bring benefits in the preparing-for-release process and reintegration process for all involved parties, Promote adult education as an engine to move prisons into being ""learning environments"".The purpose and aim behind DIACEN coincides with Mayo (2012) definition of Adult Education: provide opportunities to acquire the capacity and knowledge to navigate effectively and purposefully in the world. And in our case enable prisoners to live more successfully.Develop a pre-release program that takes into account:- the prison as a learning environment- the education, social work, security staff, prisoner and the local community sit at one table and set a learning pathway for reintegration for each prisoner in the pre-release period- an European framework and method build with the expertise of 5 member states and several networks, but adaptable and structured around personal experiences of a prisoner in a specific context- methods of community development and public policy consultation combined to capture the assets of a local community, preparing it to receive the ex-prisoner and acknowledge his / her's capabilities and needs. 3) The partnership:We are 5 partners, 4 of us representing 4 EU member states and 1 being an European NGO with international capacity. We are all supported by our national prison systems in our daily activities and also particualrly for DIACEN project. Our European level NGO has access through its members to a lot of prison systems both in Europe and outside. All our partners, through the project implementation, have piloted within the prison context, co-produced materials with the prison staff and inmates. 4) Activities & Results:A platform for educators and any prison professional A training for security prison staff (supported by the educators / social workers to be as mediators) to work together with the prisoners using dialogic methods, games, role-play and a guiding handbook - piloted in 2 staff trainings, in 2 prisons and in 1 international training of a supporting partnerA working method for the prisoner to develop together with the prison staff a flexible resources guide to help the prisoner in the first part after the release - applied in 4 countries and resulting 4 national language region speciffic guides for after release.A working system for the prison staff to cooperate with the local community, using community engagement methods in finding out what are the best ways to assist the prisoner upon release and what is available in the immediate community as resources and support system for the ex-prisoner - put together under the form of a guide and piloted at 5 multiplier events with its direct inteded users."

As realized by all parties, increasing number of refugees, with their needs to be satisfied, leads authorities to take responsibilities all around the world. As the number of refugees and immigrants grow, the possibility of unmet physical and psychological needs increases. These vulnerable individuals may try to satisfy their needs by getting into risky behaviours like substance use, committing crimes etc. For solving the problems related to refugees, the Council of Europe published many recommendations. In 2011 the Council of Europe adopted the Recommendation on Probation [Rec(2011)13] about accessibility of health system, “Barriers to the accessibility of health services may have to be removed in order to help migrants find their way in the health system”. Also, in the same Recommendation [Rec(2011)13], it is said that “Consideration should be given to all available methods of reducing language barriers, including translation by telephone and video, face-to-face interpretation, the provision of “intercultural mediators” and helping migrants to learn the language of the host country.” Professionals in probation system give training on positive coping strategies to prevent re-offending among offenders. However, the system experiences difficulty in handling the refugee offenders because of the language barrier and the offenders do not have the access to the positive coping with stress trainings in their own language. Due to the privacy rules, the probation system cannot use the translation by telephone, video and other techniques which was recommended. In the recent years, psychologists are using virtual reality (VR) to treat many psychological disorders like anxiety disorders and develop some skills such as emotion recognition and regulation, communication and so on. Also, Fromberger et al. (2014) indicated that using virtual reality is beneficial due to high controllability of social situations and it has fewer barriers compared to imagination techniques. Besides, training of behavior in high‐risk situations without endangering others is a specific advantage of using VR for forensic surroundings. The aim of the present project is to close language barrier gap and provide rehabilitation for substance user refugee probationers developing a virtual reality programme to improve their coping skills (problem solving and emotion regulation skills). Substance use will be used as a sign of deficiency in coping skills; main focus will be on teaching coping skills rather than dealing with substance use behavior. The system provides a better adult learning opportunity by getting rid of the language barrier and the confidentiality rule will not be ruined. In addition to these advantages, the same VR scenario can be adapted to different languages therefore it is cost- effective. The technique could be used in a wide range of skills, therefore open to progress. The technique has a preventive power since the same scenario can be used in normal settings, too. The pilot study will be conducted on five substance user refugee offenders Turkey, Portugal and Romania. The service in the current probation systems are expected to be improved as a result of the project, and a decrease in the reoffending figures of the refugee offenders is expected since the coping skills will be improved with the newly developed VR application. The project’s specific goals include: 1. Needs analysis report on refugee offenders will be prepared by Ankara Probation Directorate. 2. A Literature review on teaching skills with the use of virtual reality will be conducted, and a proposal on the implementation methodology of using virtual reality in teaching skills to refugee offenders will be structured.3. Creation of a Virtual Reality(VR) software programme for refugee offenders, developing methodology of using VR technology in skill teaching and adapting the newly structured system into probation fields as a new methodology - A manual for scenario writing for VR will be prepared.- Contents will be prepared. - User’s manual for the use of VR scenarios will be prepared. - A virtual reality Model will be prepared to be used in the teaching problem solving and emotion regulation skills to refugee offenders.4. Delivering a training of the trainer course for probation experts on how to use newly structured virtual reality technology to teach the refugee probationers 5. Development of Virtual Reality Skills Teaching Pilot Programme - Pilot study of the VR model will be conducted in Turkey and Portugal. - Amendments and fine tuning of the programme will be done after the pilot sessions.