"From Darkness to Light"
First of all, let me welcome you to the Department of Prisons, and thank you warmly for your support with your presence here today at the official closing ceremony of our schools, which will, of course, continue their uninterrupted operation during the summer period, as they have been doing since 2015.
ACCOUNTING
I would not like to make a long story short, but I will make a very brief assessment of our work, mentioning the beneficial results for the people in the Prisons and in general the positive results of our people-centered model as it has been shaped over the last eight years. I will also refer to our policies, procedures and practices, which are recognized as good practices, recorded in publications of the Council of Europe (CoE), and scientific articles, and are the subject of discussion and positive comments in multilateral meetings, international and European conferences, even attracting the interest of NETFLIX an international platform of global reach, a model for the streaming industry.
The recognition by the Council of State came early, in our first four years of operation based on our new correctional model as shaped by the human-centered nature of our philosophy, new values and the vision of the organization, having devoted in particular in the first two and a half years much of our personal time to the then known accumulated problems leading to serious human rights violations, and the collapse of the penitentiary structure that ended with six suicides in less than a year, daily intra-departmental violence and self-harm. With the same dedication, commitment and consistency to our values, vision, and implementation of our strategic plan, we continue to work, still devoting much of our personal time (not 16-18 hours a day as in the early years, but 12 hours and 10 at best), so that our prison service is at its current level, and without the serious problems that prisons face with overcrowding, such as increased intra-departmental violence, suicides and riots, just as was the situation in our own prisons eight years ago.
We made innovations and a series of radical changes, implementing modern management models such as helix organisation, learning organisation and transfer of knowledge, turning the Prison environment into a learning environment for all (prisoners, staff, and administration), modernising our correctional model, and turning the punitive Prison environment into a learning environment. Here it is worth mentioning the European Public Sector Award that involves all public services of the 47 CoE countries not only Prisons - we might be the only prison that dared to participate in such a competition in 2021, taking the 3rd place in the Innovative leadership category out of 130 projects, after a difficult and arduous evaluation process in three different phases by various experts and Committees of the European Commission.
We have also applied principles of modern correctional models of a reformative nature for the treatment of our fellow inmates, such as the work-life balance and the Good Lives model, on the basis of which we have improved the living conditions to be as similar as possible, conditions outside the Prison, facilitating and supporting the socialisation, smoother reintegration and professional rehabilitation of those released from prison, thus reducing the risks to public safety and preventing recidivism.
Our conviction that all people can change and become better has been our driving force to work with dedication and commitment to achieve our goals, setting principles and values that respectfully safeguard the human dignity and diversity of both prisoners and staff, creating a modern penitentiary system, from practices and procedures that in many cases constitute a model in the countries of the CoE, as I will briefly quote:
(a) the Prison education system
We are proud of our education system since since 2015 we have the same education system in the country, as provided for in the European Prison Rules. We established nine schools to meet the learning needs of all prisoners, in the same way as free citizens, in secondary, tertiary, higher education, as well as vocational education, with the implementation of evening gymnasium, high school, and evening technical school, and distance learning. By way of illustration, initially ¼ of our prisoners participated, and in the last almost eight years with the change in our education system, we have increased our schools from the original two to nine, where more than 3/4 of our prisoners attend programs, with the highest number of prisoner participation in the CoE countries. Further, to date, 19 of our prisoners have attended and are attending universities to obtain degrees, master's degrees, and doctorates, whose studies are conducted through distance learning and tutoring.
Also, through our educational programs, we support lifelong learning through which our prisoners have lifelong contact with learning, education, and culture.
Through our educational programs, we support lifelong learning through which our prisoners have lifelong contact with learning, education, and culture.
Another innovation in the educational system of our Prisons is the institution of continuous operation of our schools, which we have established since 2015, aiming at the year-round active participation and creative occupation of the prisoners in them, during the Christmas and Easter holidays, as well as during the summer.
It should be noted that in all our schools there are year-round lending libraries and a film library from which our prisoners can borrow DVDs with entertainment and educational content.
The seal of the successful operation of our educational system in Prison schools is the fact that at the European Prison Regime Forum of EUROPRIS on Prison Education our Prison educational system was recognized as a best practice of educational systems of European Prisons, in 2017 in Rome and in 2018 in The Hague. Also important at the local level is the awarding of the Prison schools by the Observatory of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth in 2020 for the prevention of violence, juvenile delinquency and active citizenship.
(b) Staff education and training
Corresponding efforts are being made to train and educate staff. We have established the Correctional Officers' Academy on the basis of the standards set for the Correctional Officers' Academies in Switzerland in 2017 and Estonia in 2018, as well as the operational centre for simulation exercises, investing a lot in their lifelong learning and training to enable them to work effectively on the basis of professional correctional standards. We have also set up a gym which is operated by purchasing services from the CMO, and a room for martial arts training. Finally, our members participate in European programs in Cyprus and abroad.
[C]SKYPE communication, which we have been implementing since January 2015, is recorded as good practice in the 2016 edition of the CoE's Handbook for the Prevention of Prisoner Abuse in Prisons, and was implemented in other European prisons as recently as 2020 during the pandemic.
(d) The treatment of LGBTI persons in our prisons was discussed very positively in Estonia in 2018 at the CoE's annual Conference of Prison Directors and Probation Service Directors, as well as the treatment of other vulnerable groups of prisoners,which was praised with positive comments in 2019 at the CoE's Annual Conference of Prison Directors and Custody Service Managers, which we hosted in our country, having been commissioned by the CoE to organise it in recognition of our work.
(e) Recognition of our work - Participation in ExpertGroupsBoard of Directors of the EuroPris
The recognition of our work is also recorded in our selection by the CoE, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture CPT of the CoE, the United Nations and EuroPris as expert to the Committees, Councils and their working groups in particular on children of prisoners, foreign prisoners, pandemic management, prevention of torture, and education in prisons, as well as being selected for a second term on the board of EuroPris. Further, recognition of our work and all the positive changes in our Department in recent years, is sealed by the assignment to our Department by the CoE, of the organization of the 24th Conference of Directors of Prisons and Probation Services held in May 2019, in Cyprus, with great success as stated by senior CoE officials both in the media and in the meetings of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Community Cooperation held subsequently in Strasbourg. Further, we were also entrusted with the 8th Annual General Assembly and Conference of EUROPRIS, from which we had received very positive feedback. Both Conferences were attended by a total of more than 270 delegates, most of whom were Prison Directors from 40 countries of the Council of Europe, where at the end of the Prison Directors' Conference, together with high-ranking officials of the Council of Europe, visited our Prisons, expressing their appreciation for our work and gaining the best impressions.
In the last eight years, we have been visited and continue to be visited from abroad by several Prison Directors, Members of the German Parliament, as well as Directorates and Ministry officials from the CoE countries, in the context of modernizing their prison systems, recognizing the positive changes and good practices of our Prisons. In fact, on several occasions, we are invited to present in other countries, in international and European conferences our penitentiary model and its positive results summarized in a number of good practices.
(f) Sports in Prisons, Recreation, Activities
In sports, as in education, we have invested a lot, since we believe that it helps to cultivate spirit and morals, and contributes to the improvement of health - physical and mental. We have established eight gyms for prisoners and one for staff with modern sports equipment, which are operated with daily supervision by physical education teachers from the COA, through the purchase of services. In addition to the large football pitch where football meetings and sports conferences, such as the European Week of Sport, and survival sports competitions are held, we have created basketball courts, futsal and volleyball courts in all wing courtyards and we have installed outdoor equipment for calisthenics, Further, the workout is enriched with exercise programs such as personal training, Yoga, Body Combat, and Zoumba. It is important to mention, that in May we have been awarded in the European Commission's Be Inclusive competition for sport in the category of Celebrating Diversity, where we were awarded the amount of 2,500 euros which we deposited to our Prisoners' Welfare Fund. We were perhaps the only prison to participate in this competition, with other sports federations, sports clubs and teams from all the CoE countries. Also, we have just been informed yesterday that in the Be Active competition during the European Sports Week 2021, we have won the 1st prize for outdoor activity in functional relays and the 3rd prize in martial arts for women, and we have been honoured for our active participation in the European sports team.
(g) Theatre - Music
Regarding prisoner activities inside and outside the Prison, as you have watched in the video clip, we participate together with our female and male prisoners in several social, recreational and charity events, inside and outside the Prison, always receiving positive feedback. Also, our mixed theatre team, to which Mrs. Zoe Kyprianou, whom we thank warmly for her services, has reached the final round of the Pancyprian amateur theatre competition on two occasions, and our prisoners have been awarded first and second prizes for male roles. Further, positive impressions are earned by our musicians, and dance team, which you will watch below.
(h) Early preventive measures to the threat of COVID-19
The challenge of the COVID-19 threat found several prisons abroad unprepared, resulting in the loss of staff and prisoners' lives, tensions, riots, and putting the safety of people's prisons at risk.
We are one of the Prisons that took timely preventative measures on March 10, 2020, the day after the first incident in our country, keeping the coronavirus out of the closed Prison for 19 months - we may be the only Prison in the world to have achieved this, with zero inmate cases since the beginning of the pandemic, while we have preserved the rights of our inmates without creating the slightest tension in the Prison, when in a free society, domestic violence had increased by 40%.
The measures have been a good practice for other prisons, they have adopted them, adapting them to their own circumstances and needs. They have been posted on the EUROPRIS website since the early days of the pandemic, and are updated accordingly. The pandemic was a test for us, assessing our readiness to respond immediately to unforeseen risk, flexibility, adaptability to new circumstances, and the resilience of the organisation in general. In a recent survey by the European Network of Journalists, our Prisons were recorded as having the highest rate of overcrowding but the lowest rate of coronavirus cases.
Finally, from the beginning of 2022, the Deputy Director of Prisons and my closest collaborator Ms Athena Demetriou has been assigned by Europris to coordinate the COVID LEARNINGS working group, which will record the best practices for several topics related to pandemic management in the prisons of the CoE countries.
(i) European Programmes
Regarding European Programmes, our Department has paid particular attention to them, participating in the last eight years in 24 European Programmes of which four are ongoing, as partners and experts, with our staff and prisoners, and recently our proposal for the European Programme "Holistic Educational Support for Sex Offenders in the EU" has been approved, having the coordinating role in it.
(i) Strategic Partnerships - Memoranda of Understanding
Further, we have entered into Strategic Partnerships and Memoranda of Understanding with Universities, the CCO, institutions and other organisations in Cyprus and abroad.
(k) Decisions of the ECHR, reports of international and European Committees
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Committee Reports, but also the decisions of the ECHR, where positive comments on the living conditions of prisoners are now recorded, highlighting opportunities for creative engagement in work and school, upgraded medical services, quality and quantity of food, exercise, recreation, etc.a, unanimously rejecting 4 interim orders and one appeal, while to date the Republic of Cyprus has been paying lawsuits and appeals from 2010 - 2013. Furthermore, our good practices are included in relevant publications and articles of the CoE and other European organizations such as EuroPris and COPE.
(l) (k) Low recidivism and suicide rate
I will conclude the positive results of the last eight years by mentioning that we are one of the Prisons with the lowest recidivism rates in the world, as we do not exceed 14-15%, despite our disadvantage as a country with no post-release support structures, as well as having the lowest rates of intra-sectional violence, self-harm, and suicide in the CoE countries with 0% in recent years, considering that only eight years earlier, we had a suicide rate of 44.1% per 100,000 people, much higher than the CoE average suicide rate of only 24.4%.
(m) Preventing and fighting corruption in prisons
I last left mention of the efforts we have made in the last eight years to prevent and fight corruption in our service. Committed to the basic principle that responsibility and accountability are elements that promote democracy, good administration, transparency and the trust of staff and prisoners in the Department's management, we have from the very first moment tackled every dimension of corruption phenomena with determination and responsibility. We knew that corruption in prisons was a phenomenon with multifaceted dimensions, which posed serious risks to the security and operation of prisons and constituted a burden on the effort to modernize our penitentiary system. Demonstrating zero tolerance, from the very first moment we emphasized the fight against corruption and as a result we had six arrests of staff members and the termination of their services. We have established transparent disciplinary procedures that are strictly committed to the letter of the law, transparent and rigorous control procedures in matters of security and adherence to our obligations, both for staff and prisoners. Therefore, with the same sense of responsibility both to you and to the state, the President of the Republic and his Government, the House of Representatives and the political parties and institutions, we will continue to act with commitment to the broader public interest, demonstrating zero tolerance for phenomena of corruption that affect the prestige and dignity of all of us.
Dear guests, friends,
In closing, I would like to thank our prisoners for their cooperation in the joint effort to reform the prison space, assuring that the respect between us is always mutual. I would also like to thank the majority of staff members who have respectfully embraced the philosophy of this Directorate for the past eight years, carrying out their duties with consistency and diligent effort based on the human-centered philosophy and values of the Organization, contributing to the realization of the objectives of our strategic plan and the modernization of our prison system, as well as the staff members and members of my Office who contribute to the realization of this event, and all the publications of this Directorate. In particular, I would like to thank Athena, my closest colleague, for her selfless dedication and endless commitment to modernizing our prisons.
Finally, I thank all of you who are here with us, embracing and supporting our efforts with love, giving us the strength to continue fighting with the same vigour for the self-evident human rights of the people living and working in the Prisons, despite the adversities and problems that we unexpectedly encounter from time to time, when, for some, the obvious, as recorded in all the human rights conventions, the jurisprudence of the ECHR, and the Reports of the competent committees of the CoE, the United Nations and the Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights, are considered by some, when applied in Prisons, to be excesses and luxuries. Human rights apply to all people, free and incarcerated, without exception. At some point in our country, this should be understood by all of us.
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