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30th Council of Europe CDPPS Conference: Can we move away from the overuse of penal sanctions?
On 24–25 September 2025, Kraków, Poland, hosted the 30th Council of Europe Conference of Directors of Prison and Probation Services (CDPPS) under the theme “Can we move away from the overuse of penal sanctions?”. The event gathered high-level participants — Directors General from member and observer states and representatives of the supporting organisations.
As the host of the Conference were Polish Ministry of Justice and the Polish Penitentiary Administration, conference was opened by Polish Minister of Justice Mr. Waldemar Zurek and Keynote speech on the Polish penitentiary system by Ms Maria Ejchart, Undersecretary of State.
CEP delegation participated actively in the conference program:
- Annie Devos (CEP President) opened the conference with a keynote speech on net-widening in probation, highlighting the importance of humane, proportionate and socially effective sanctions and measures.
- Jana Špero (CEP Secretary General) moderated key plenary session on net-widening and overcrowding in which the panellists were Iuliana Carbunaru (CEP Vice President) and Daniel Danglades (CEP Board Member), rethinking penal policy, bringing insights and good examples from practice and policy leadership
- Danijela Mrhar Prelić (CEP Board Member) moderated workshop session on supporting children of imprisoned parents
During the plenaries and workshop sessions, the discussions tackled key challenges on how to reduce imprisonment and ease the burden on probation systems, integrating neurodiversity awareness in offender management, and re-envisioning penal policy through evidence and risk assessment. More details regarding the Conference can be found at https://www.coe.int/en/web/prison/krakow-24-25-september-2025
It was announced that next CDPPS Conference in 2026 will be held in Malta.
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