At 17th April, Athens was the capital of the science of probation in Europe, as researchers and academics from all over Europe flocked together to attend the  international COST conference on Offender Supervision in Europe. Committed to bring together both science and practice in probation,  CEP, in person of Secretary General Willem van der Brugge, attended the meeting. “It was good to see that the diversity of Europe is represented in the academic discussion on probation”, comments Willem van der Brugge, who seized the opportunity to also liaise with the Greek Ministry of Justice the day before. Probation in Greece exists from 2007. With 41 probation officers the organization still is relatively small. Harsh reality is that all judicial organizations in Greece have to deal with the consequences of the economic crisis. Sure enough quite a task.

Click here to read an impression of the COST conference by Fergus McNeil.