From 7 to 10 and from 14 to 17 November, two Latvian delegations went to Norway with the aim to get acquainted with the practice of the neighbouring country's partners in the implementation of the mentoring (practice management) system, thus ensuring further training of the practice managers of the Latvian Prison Administration and successful transfer of the practice manager training programme.
The Latvian mentor delegation was given information by the Romerike Prison representative about the prison infrastructure, layout and the Norwegian penitentiary system (about the prison facilities and their role in the prison infrastructure, statistics on prisoners, etc.).
The delegation visited the closed and open units of the prison for two days, where they saw the infrastructure, the working conditions of the staff and the mentoring system, as well as the conditions of the prisoners, and learned about the duties of the internship supervisors and the specifics of managing an internship.
During the visit, the representatives of the Latvian Prison Administration also got acquainted with the practical part of the training process (training department) and the theoretical part (training rooms), as well as took part in discussions between the training supervisors and the trainees.
During the visit, the Latvian delegation of mentors gained an in-depth insight into dynamic security in the Norwegian penitentiary system, although currently no Latvian legislation regulates the implementation of the dynamic security method in Latvian prisons.
Training was held within the framework of the project “Establishment of Training centre infrastructure and model prison blocks for training opportunities in the Olaine prison territory” of the Norwegian financial instrument programme “Correctional Services”.