I am the executive director of the penitentiary integration and probation services in the Drôme / Ardèche departments, a bi-departmental service with its headquarters in Valence in the Drôme.
The governance of the entire region is complex because of its interdepartmental nature – I must always focus on taking into account the peculiarities of each of the territories while at the same time creating a balanced policy of harmonizing the practices and adhesion of each of the two areas. In fact the main objective remains to bring them together in a common collective spirit, which is the interest of our service.
The continuity of prison public service during this very difficult period of total confinement is my main concern during each day. Preserving the health of my employees as well as that of the offenders, which are monitored by our service through a judicial mandate, are absolutely essential elements of the conditions for maintaining our activities. The care, evaluation and support that the staff of the SPIPs of Drôme and Ardèche provide to the 3000 offenders from the two departments continues, almost more than in the context of face-to-face interviews now supported by other means like telephone interviews, sending and receiving emails and SMS, and more conventionally via hardcopy letters. Finally, it should be noted that we have been able to maintain the number and quality of the production of the service’s judicial reports in order to keep influencing and following court decisions despite the complicated technical working conditions. For this concern of the continuity of the response to the judicial authorities, we received thanks and congratulations from the magistrates.
The continuity of the functioning of justice, an essential sovereign mission of a democratic state capable of guaranteeing the security of all, must be imperatively preserved in all circumstances, even during such situations of exceptional magnitude and unprecedented nature like the current Covid-19 pandemic. This is, I believe, what we stand for in the SPIP of the Drôme and the SPIP of the Ardèche – maintaining the missions that we must ensure on a daily basis with the criminal public entrusted to us by judicial mandate.
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From 18-20 November 2025, 15th Plenary Meeting of the Council for Penological Co-operation took part in Council of Europe, Strasbourg. CEP was represented by President Annie Devos, Vice-Presidents Danijela Mrhar Prelic (PC-CP member) and Daniel Danglades and Secretary General Jana Spero Kamenjarin.
The CEP Expert Group on Mental Health met on 19 November 2025 to continue its work on developing a European mental health training curriculum for probation officers. Since last year, the group has been working intensively and meticulously to produce a solid first version of the curriculum.
CEP has released the first cross-European study examining stress, burnout, and morale among probation staff. The report was produced by Professor Charlie Brooker, Professor Karen Tocque, Professor Ioan Durnescu and Liliana Lupsica, whose combined expertise in public health, criminology, and organisational analysis provides an important contribution to our understanding of well-being in probation work.
On 12 and 13 November 2025, CEP Secretary General Jana Špero Kamenjarin participated in the Multilateral Meeting on Women in Prison: Advancing Gender-Sensitive Policies and Practices, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The meeting brought together representatives from 40 member states, penitentiary administrations, and international experts, united by a shared commitment to improving rehabilitation, reducing re-offending, and promoting gender equality in places of deprivation of liberty.
This book, Forensic Social Work – Supporting Desistance, has been released by Routledge. It is a practice-oriented resource exploring how forensic social work can support desistance and foster meaningful change in the lives of justice-involved individuals.
The 16th episode of Division_Y features Stephan Leißner, a public probation and parole officer at the Coburg Regional Court in Bavaria, Germany.
