Report on the

SECOND WORKING SESSION OFFERED TO THE ALBANIAN PRISON ADMINISTRATION IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE OPERATIONAL ASSISTANCE

Organized by Albanian Helsinki Committee

On 14-15 October 2004

In the premises of Peqin Penitentiary Institution

Tirana on 18.10.2004.

 In the framework of its mission of human rights protection, sensitization and education of the public in general with human rights, as well as aiming at supporting the Albanian authorities in their efforts to deepen reforms in the penitentiary institutions regarding a better and contemporary management of Albanian prisons, AHC on 14-15 October 2004 organized the second working session in the premises of Peqin prison. The manual, which serves as the basis of all these working sessions, is the “Approach of human rights on prison management “.

  This second working session worked on the assignments already laid down at the first working session held in June 2004 in Rrogozhina prison premises. More concretely, the main objective of this session was to offer counseling and constructive remarks and recommendations which aim at improving the drafted house rules of Peqin prison, to offer a model of the code of conduct for penitentiary institutions as well as concrete formats on job descriptions of prison personnel. This activity was attended and supported by the Deputy Minister of Justice and at the same time General Director of Prisons in charge Mr. Anastas Duro, high officials of the General Directorate of Prisons, prison governors of Peqin and Rrogozhina, senior staff of both these pilot prisons as well as jurists of all other prisons.  Experts who offered their expertise in this session were Mr. Jan van den Brand, General Regional Governor of some prisons in the Netherlands, at the same expert of the European Council in Eastern and Central Europe, Mr. Cees Boeij, General Governor on a special task of drafting the amendments of the penitentiary law in the Netherlands, and Mrs. Tika Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Prison Governor in the Netherlands, all individuals with a long experience in management of the penitentiary institutions. It is worth pointing out that Mr. Per Colliander, Swedish expert with a long experince in the penitentiary area at the same time expert of the Council of Europe have offered his comments and recommendations too regarding the draft regulation of Peqin prison which were reflected in the coments offered by all the experts who participated in this session. Mrs. Edlira Papavangjeli, Programs’ Coordinator was representing Albanian Helsinki Committee in this activity.   

As stated above, the main focus of this second working session was given to the issue of the drafted house rules of Peqin penitentiary institution. Experts after having studied these inner rules provided the participants with their concrete comments and suggestions regarding this document. At the same time they offered and discussed with the participants a model structure of all this legal infrastructure needed for each penitentiary institutions in Albania. They brought samples of the Dutch principle penitentiary act which is a general format of the main regulations and principles regarding penitentiary institutions and an example of a particular house rules of one of the Dutch penitentiary institutions. The general suggestion which the participants appreciated and agreed upon was the issue of methodology in drafting such important documents for each penitentiary institution. Experts offered particular remarks in regard with many articles of the draft-inner rules of Peqin prison which aimed at producing a better structured document avoiding lengthy details.

Another very important issue treated in this activity was the need of having a written national code of conduct for all penitentiary institutions in Albania, based on which each penitentiary institution can elaborate their local one. Experts introduced a sample of a local code of conduct of prison personnel which served as an example to the participants and which was discussed at length as a concept paper to be adopted by the Albanian penitentiary institutions. Participants highlighted that such a document is a necessity in regulating prison staff behavior and attitude while performing their duties and responsibilities in the prisons.

The issue of job descriptions for each post of prison staff was another highlight of this program. Experts offered a concrete format of different job descriptions of prison staff which was consulted at a special working panel with the participants. Through this offered format, experts could bring different perspectives and a widened vision regarding the content of a job description of a certain post in the prison administration including not only duties and responsibilities but also abilities and skills needed for each post.

All these significant issues were treated at length in separate working panels with the participants which each time reported on the conclusions of these constructive discussions and came with concrete feedback on the issues raised.

Time was also given to the introduction of one chapter translated in Albanian from the book on “Managing prisons in time of change” written by Andrew Coyle, which treats issues like prison management as a profession, leadership in prisons, staff/prisoner relationships, staff attitudes and recruitment and training of staff. This was appreciated by the participants as it provides them with a very comprehensive treatment of such issues of concern.

Concluding, the participants, experts and the representative of the AHC asses this activity as successful for the objectives set forth. This was also highlighted in the speeches of high representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the General Directorate of Prisons. These high officials pointed out to the fact that the priority of this activity which was the draft house rules of Peqin penitentiary institution as well as the concept of the code of conduct and all other related issues as described above are set as priorities of the Ministry of Justice in their Master Plan in the framework of the penitentiary reforms in Albania. At the same time, these high officials emphasized that it would be effective to have a concrete cooperation between the group working on management issues in the framework of the Master plan project and the AHC together with its experts. Therefore, taking this into consideration, all the participants of this activity concluded that this working session will be followed up by another working session of a small working group which with the support of the experts and AHC will finalize the suggestions and recommendations for the improvement of the drafted house rules of Peqin penitentiary institution as well as the concept of a national and local code of conduct. The high officials of these state institutions assured AHC of their good will and support in all this process of cooperation.

This activity was implemented in the framework of the project “Reforms of the penitentiary institutions and the role of the civil society in Albania” financially funded by the Swedish Helsinki Committee.