GRADO
For the project RAMAI LIBER - Stay outside! By decision of December 2016, the Lottery Fund of the Canton of Zurich awarded VEBO a total of CHF 216,000 for social integration and the prevention of recidivism in Romania.
Objectives of the project:
- To develop NPO support services for inmates and ex-offenders.
- 100 prison inmates in each of the three prisons "Mioveni","Margineni" and "Jilava" are to participate in relapse prevention programmes.
- Preliminary work is to be carried out outside the prisons for the establishment of a network of private and public institutions to accompany the offenders after their release from prison.
As part of a previous project, VEBO has been working successfully and reliably with the NGO "GRADO - Romanien Group for the Human Rights Defence" for several years. GRADO is also our local partner organisation in the current project. At VEBO, Thomas Wüthrich, President and Manfred Flühmann, member of the VEBO Executive Board, are responsible for the implementation and correct use of the project.
The project in the three prisons can only be carried out thanks to the support of the national prison administration, which is fully behind the project. This is expressed by the fact that, in each of the three prisons selected, they leave two members of the enforcement staff to participate in this project for two years on eight days a month.
The first project management meeting took place on 24 April 2017 at the National Prison Administration of Romania in Bucharest with representatives of the prison administration, three delegates from the three prisons, GRADO and VEBO.
Following the meeting, VEBO representatives visited Mioveni prison together with GRADO. The prison director led us through the prison and made sure that the Swiss delegation understands the challenges posed by an old and overcrowded prison with too little staff and lack of financial resources.
From October 15th to 19th, 2017, a study trip of a six-member delegation from Romania took place in the Canton of Zurich. It was a representative of the National Prison Administration, one person from each of the three prisons and two representatives of GRADO.
On the first day, the delegation was welcomed by the Office of Correctional Justice of the Canton of Zurich. They were informed by competent staff of the Office about the work of probationary assistance in Switzerland, about the "risk-oriented enforcement of sanctions" ROS and about the learning programmes on domestic violence.
On the second day, the delegation visited the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW, Department of Social Work, in the morning to visit the lecturer and course director of CAS Education, Dissociality, Delinquency and Crime. Topics of this visit were the resignation and transition management of prisoners, the preparation for the dismissal, the transfer to a home and/or work external counsel, as well as the escort after the dismissal. Finally, the contents of the workshop in mid-November 2017 (see below) were discussed and clarified.
In the afternoon, the delegation was visited" Team 72" in Zurich Oerlikon. Topics here were information about the association, employment placement, day-care facilities and outpatient counselling.
On the 3rd day we visited the open prison Saxerriet with the experts from the Romanian prison system and probationary services.
At the second project management meeting in Bucharest on 13 November 2017, the participants were informed about the implementation and development of the project and discussed the planned activities for the coming year.
Workshop in Romania from November 14th to 16th, 2017 in Bucharest
The head of the course of studies "Dissociality, Delinquency and Crime of the ZHAW held a lecture for the more than thirty participants (social workers from the three prisons and municipal social services) in the morning before the participants met in working groups to facilitate the transfer of information into the Romanian probation service and to create a network between the various actors and participants.