CEP Newsletter

2nd International Criminal Justice Summer Course: workshop reports now available!

From the 3rd until the 6th of July 2018 the Criminal Justice Platform Europe organised the 2nd edition of the Criminal Justice Summer Course together with the Centre of Legal Studies and Specialised Training in Barcelona. The conference was attended by 56 participants from seventeen countries.

The aim of the Summer Course is to examine key practice issues, inspire new thinking, promote cross-fertilisation and build new networks to improve services and practice in prison, probation and restorative justice. This years theme was radicalisation and violent extremism.

You can find the Workshop reports and presentations on the CEP website.

Conferences you shouldn't miss!

7th SPECTO Conference, Timisoara

On the 13th and 14th of September 2018, CEP and the West University of Timisoara organise the 7th edition of International Conference Multidisciplinary Perspectives in the Quasi-Coercive Treatment of Offenders (SPECTO). The conference will be held in Timisoara, Romania.

Foreign National Prisoners and Probationers Workshop, The Hague

The joint EuroPris and CEP expert group on Foreign Nationals in Prison and Probation is organising a workshop on the 9th and 10th of October 2018 in The Hague, the Netherlands. It builds on the successful workshops in London 2014 and Bruges 2016. The workshop brings together practitioners, policy makers, voluntary groups and universities to discuss the challenges and needs of this specific group.

Reframing Sexual Abuse: Practical Directions, Riga

The conference ‘Reframing Sexual Abuse: Practical Directions’ will be held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2018. The conference will be facilitated by the CEP and spearheaded by the Latvian Probation Service and the Latvian Prison Administration. It is aimed at practitioners, mainly probation staff.

A day in the life of a probation officer: Ligia Birdici

Is the day of a probation officer in Germany similar to the one of someone working in Romania? In the series ‘A day in the life of a probation officer’, we publish articles written by probation officers from different countries in Europe to see if their days look a like or are very different from each other. This article is written by Ligia Birdici, probation officer of the Arges Probation Service, Romania.

Prof. Rob Canton delivers the 21st Bill McWilliams Memorial Lecture

Rob Canton, Professor in Community and Criminal Justice at the De Montfort University in Leicester and CEP Honorary Member had the honour to deliver the 21st Annual Bill McWilliams Memorial Lecture at the University of Cambridge on the 26th of June 2018.

The lecture was about his latest book “Why Punish?”. This book is an attempt to show the value of combining the insights of social sciences with those of philosophy in trying to understand punishment. Subtitled An Introduction to the Philosophy of Punishment, the book takes no particular philosophical position but is guided by a definition from the Harvard philosopher, Michael Sandel.

Watch the lecture here >>

Interesting article: ‘Probation Officer as a Coach: Building a New Professional Identity’

In America the amount of probationers is growing massively, one out of 53 people is under probation supervision. According to Lovins et al. a continuing concern is what role a probation officer should play in the live of a probationer.

“In traditional discourse, role choices have often been posed in dichotomous terms whether officers were going to emphasize treatment or control. We suggest, however, that it may be more useful to move beyond these stale categories. Instead, we propose that probation (and parole) officers might benefit from a different concept of who they are and what they do: probation officer as a coach.”