The Business Case for Providing Services to Prisoners Abroad
Members of the CEP Special Interest Group on Foreign Nationals have written The Business Case for Providing Services to Prisoners Abroad.
Download the Business Case
It is widely recognised that resettlement work should be undertaken with prisoners both during sentence and following release to secure their reintegration into the community and to reduce the risk of harm to others by re-offending. A substantial number of prisoners are held in countries from which they will be deported on release. There are few countries in Europe where the country to which they will return has any planned services to assist with their resettlement. This paper draws on the experience of countries where resettlement services are provided for ‘prisoners abroad' and demonstrates that there is both a humanitarian and a business case for this work.
Framework decisions of the European Union provide for the transfer of prisoners and of community sanctions recognising that this facilitates the social rehabilitation of sentenced persons and improves the protection of victims and the general public. However, these provisions will affect only a small proportion of foreign national prisoners of European origin as many are imprisoned outside the EU.
The problems of resettlement faced by men and women returning home or deported from prison abroad are much greater than those faced by those imprisoned within their own country. The risks of reoffending are, it is argued, considerable but can be reduced by dedicated resettlement services.
Services provided in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland are described. The organisations providing these services differ and there is clearly no one model of organisation though all demonstrate that government funding is considerably augmented by other resources.
CEP considers that all countries in Europe should have a strategy for the reintegration of men and women returning from prison abroad and calls on the relevant authorities to plan for the provision of such services.
Download the Business Case
For more information on the Business Case, read this article, or read this interview.
