Workshops on transition management from execution to freedom

Bucharest, November 14th – 16th 2017

Thomas Wüthrich, Manfred Flühmann and Roger Hofer flew to Bucharest on Sunday, November 12th 2017 and where Mihai Popescu, President of GRADO gave them a warm welcome. He then brought the three Swiss experts to Hotel RIN Central, where the seminar was to took place.

On Monday, November 13th 2017, a meeting of a  Romanian delegation and the experts from Switzerlandcoverde mainly the implementation of the project to the present day then discussed planning and coordination between VEBO and GRADO for the activities in 2018. Tuesday, November 14th 2017 the three-day workshop started at 09:00 am. More than 30 social workers were present. Most of these specialists came from one of the three prisons in Colibasi, Margineni or Jilava, from which an average of 100 prisoners are released every month. The other participants came from governmental or private organizations and institutions, which worked in different forms and intensities with the target group (released prisoners). Topics were professional qualifications or job search, but also in the form of financial or advisory social services.

 

Mihai Popescu opened the workshop and presented the aims of these three days. It was mainly a first contact for the establishment of a network between internal and extramural departments. In the future, this networking should lead to a better transition management from execution to freedom, in order to support the resocialization of the discharged into society.

 

All three days were similarly structured. There were inputs by Roger Hofer (1^st lecture : Execution and Progression Levels in Switzerland, 2^nd:  Case Management and Recidivism Prevention, 3^rd:  Transition Management from Different Perspectives, 4th Speech: Relative Work), followed by discussions. Afterwards, groups of 4-8 participants each worked on different topics on transition management, presented the results to the plenary session and discussed them together.

Roger Hofer noticed the high commitment of individual social workers for their work. Saw how much professional effort there was on the part of the social workers to make the transition to freedom for the individual a success. This was evident, among other things, in the presentations of the respective group work in the plenary session. Roger heard how much work is done for the clients after the dismissal. The reactions to his inputs in the lectures  showed him the high level of commitment to the questions  and problems addressed in his inputs. From his point of view, there was an active, open and realistic examination of his papers. According to Mihai Popescu, an active confrontation took place at eye level between the participants and Roger Hofer. He was also very pleased that Cristina Teoroc, Head Social Services, made it possible for him to visit the Jilava prison on Friday morning.

Roger Hofer, Dec. 2017