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REPORT ON THE ROUND TABLE
Organized by the Albanian Helsinki Committee
6
April 2006
 In
the framework of enhancing awareness and recognition of human rights and law
enforcement by prisons administration, as well as aiming at supporting the
Albanian authorities in their efforts to further reform the penitentiary
institutions, on 6 April 2006, at Doro Hotel, Albania Helsinki Committee
organized a round table on organization, function and renumeration of the
employment of detainees in prisons. The goal of this round table was to discuss
on the Albanian legal framework in order to create the necessary possibilities
for implementing the employment of detainees in Albanian prisons. More
concretely the round table was focused on the draft decision
of the Council of Ministers “For the development of the
employment activity in the prisons and the criteria for its remuneration”.
This
activity was attended and supported by representatives from the Codification and
Penitentiary Directories at the Ministry of Justice that have worked on this
draft decision, Mr. Lulezim Kodra, Deputy General Director of Prisons, prisons’
goveners of Kosova and Ali Demi in Tirana, and some other representatives from
General Directorate of Prisons. Expertise was offered by Mr. Jan van den Brand,
Director Portfolio and Coordinator of the External Relations in the Dutch
National Agency of Correctional Institutions in the Netherlands, at the same
time, expert of the European Council in Eastern and Central Europe and
also by Mr. Peeter Naks, expert on
penitentiary issues from Euralius Mission in Albania. Mrs. Edlira Papavangjeli,
Programs’ Coordinator and Mrs. Ersida Sefa, project assistant was representing
the Albania Helsinki Committee in this activity.
The
participants assessed as very positive initiative the starting process and all
the work done until now for the employment of detainees in prisons. A working
group from the General Directorate of Prisons had already studied the draft
decision and offered their comments and feedback, in addition to the suggestions
and recommendations already provide by foreign experts. One of the main issues
discussed in this round table was the position and competences of the Employment
Commission. The participants agreed that this Commission should be a consultant
body responsible for identifying the policies and the priorities for the
employment of the detainees, should supervise and assess this process in all the
penitentiary institutions. Managing the employment process should rest with
responsibilities of the local prison since they know better the situation in the
prison, the number of the detainees that applied for work and the employment
possibilities of the institution taking into consideration the detainees’
requests, skills and social risks.
The
invited foreign experts in this round table introduced the philosophy of the
employment of the detainees through some best practices of the other countries.
The experts introduced the participants with some additional comments and
suggestions on the draft decision of the Council of Minister for the employment
of detainees in order to make it sucessfully applicable in practice. The experts
explained to the participants that it is very important to start with the
feasibility studies along with the further development of the improvement of the
draft decision since making employment of the detainees a reality is the most
challenging part of the process. The experts divided the draft decision in three
parts, the organization of the employment in prisons in all its aspects, the
implementation of this draft decision in prisons for detainees’ employment and
the remuneration of the detainees. The last topic was another important issue
where lots of discussion took place in the round table. The participants agreed
that the remuneration of the detainees should be provided in the decision of the
Council of Minister and it should be the same policy for all the prisons. The
experts and the participants discussed different models of remuneration of
detainees, the system that would be most recommendable for the Albanian reality
its advantages and disadvantages.
At
the conclusions of the round table the experts were assigned to offer further
detailed comments on the Employment Commission, remuneration of detainees and
some recommendations of the implementation policies of the whole process. The
working group of the General Directorate of Prisons and the Ministry of Justice
will consider this feedback and will work out a final draft decision, which will
be commented by the experts.
Albania Helsinki Committee plans to follow up this process with a concrete
seminar in one pilot prison where the foreign experts can offer their expertise
regarding the implementation of a pilot project on the employment of the
detainees based on the feasibilities done in that pilot prison.
The
participants of the round table assessed this activity as achieving its
objective and underlined the importance of the detainees’ employment as one of
the means to prepare them for their re-integration into the society after their
release.
Tirana, on 7 April 2006
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