At the end of last week, on 25-26 May 2023, the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Latvian Prison Administration and the State Probation Service, organized an international conference “Future Competences for Future Prisons” in Riga for correctional service specialists
It was attended by representatives from Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania and Latvia.
Discussions were made during the conference on the improvement of resocialisation system, integration of former prisoners into society, need for modern and diverse infrastructure, ability of staff to adapt to different situations and circumstances, professional competencies, as well as the introduction of digital technologies in the daily work with clients of correctional services.
Within the framework of the conference, specialists from both Latvian and foreign correctional services shared their knowledge on the issues of correctional services’ staff development, about how significant it is to use social and interpersonal communication skills in the daily work of penal enforcement both with colleagues and offenders. Also, a confirmation was obtained at the conference that the staff of the correctional services will have to use digital and other technologies more and more in their everyday life, which will allow human resources to be directed more towards the qualified resocialisation of convicts, while maintaining human contacts.
The issues discussed at the conference show the maturity of the Latvian correctional services system and the preparedness of the staff to work, develop and adapt to new equivocal solutions in the resocialisation process now and in the future.
The conference was organized within the framework of the Norway Grants programme “Correctional Services”. It was attended by representatives from Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania and Latvia.
Also, the conference presented a close collaboration of Latvian correctional services with institutions and employees of Norwegian correctional services.
Watch the video about Latvia’s cooperation with institutions of Norwegian correctional services for almost three decades, and changes experienced and planned by the correctional services system of Latvia.
Working together for a safe and inclusive Europe.