EU helps Albania treat prisoners

TIRANA, July 22 – The European Union funded the 400,000 euro project “Managing Prisons in a Humane Way” for a 27-month period trying to raise the capacities of prison staff through establishing a permanent Training Centre for Prisons, the delivery of trainings on respect of human rights, the development of a full recruitment system and codes of conduct.
In the framework of this project, training of the prison staff has been provided to strengthen their management capacities and knowledge of prisoners’ rights. The project also provided help with the organizational structure of prisons, the handling of conflicts in prisons, and a prison staff code of conduct. All these issues are addressed in the manual “Making Standards Work” produced by the project to serve as a permanent resource for those concerned.
In order to assist Albania in meeting the standards in this area and progress towards the EU, the European Commission has assisted the penitentiary system in a comprehensive way. Commission funding has served to build and reconstruct prisons, pre-trial detention centers and the Juvenile Detention Centre in Kavaja. These new establishments, designed in accordance with European standards, should help reduce the overcrowding that is noted in the Progress Report 2008 for Albania.
The opening of new prisons has been accompanied by efforts to raise the professionalism of prison staff and alter the nature of prison life. As the Head of the EC Delegation to Tirana, Ambassador Helmuth Lohan pointed out, “This project has indeed been an excellent start in seeing that prisons do not only serve a temporary punitive purpose but also prepare a safe return of detainees to society. Treatment of prisoners by staff is, therefore, a crucial issue.”
Ambassador Lohan went on to point at the close inter-relationship between prison management, law enforcement and the rule of law: “There is no doubt”, said he, “that more needs to be done to firmly anchor to the rule of law all aspects of governance: the legislative process, the implementation and enforcement of legislation, administrative practices, and the judiciary.”
The project “Managing Prisons in a Humane Way” has been implemented by the Albanian Helsinki Committee in partnership with the Dutch Agency of Correctional Institutions.