Multi-disciplinary teams in Romanian prison system

The National Penitentiary Administration is a governmental body, responsible to the Ministry of Justice. The National Penitentiary Administration is financed by the government.

Type of Organisation: Governmental institution

By decision of the General Director of the National Penitentiary Administration in 2015, multidisciplinary teams were set up in most units in the prison system to increase awareness and recognition of and develop a response to potential radicalisation-related threats and events.

Although radicalisation is not an issue in Romania at the time of writing, early recognition and prevention is key. It will help manage financial and human resources, should an event of this type occur.

The teams underwent a dynamic learning process, with training sessions, online specialised training courses, and study materials provided by officers from the National Penitentiary Administration. More materials will be developed in due time.

Teams comprise one officer from the relevant department (or the detention section chief), one psychologist (or social worker if a psychologist is not available) and one officer from the crime and terrorism prevention department.

Although there have not been any cases of radicalisation in the Romanian prison system to date, timely recognition of early indicators is vital: the team must prevent radicalised inmates from progressing to become violent radicalised actors.

The process involved three steps, as explained below.

Step 1. Teams learn introductory information on:

• (a) general and specific information about Islamism, and the religious assistance process of Islamic inmates;
• (b) the radicalisation process: early warnings and intervention.

Step 2. Teams disseminate the information learned in Step 1 to prison staff working in direct contact with prisoners (security and regime department, social reintegration staff and medical staff).

Step 3. Teams apply and complete the training course online.

Experts developed 11 themes to introduce teams to radicalisation concepts. These themes were uploaded onto the e-learning platform, and related training was provided.

The themes are:

1. radicalisation: a theoretical approach

2. radicalisation as a process

3. factors that influence radicalisation

4. radicalisation in the penitentiary system

5. internal and external sources of radicalisation of inmates/detainees

6. behaviour of detainees radicalised in detention

7. prison/detention procedures for radicalised inmates

8. prevention measures for at-risk situations related to radicalised detainees

9. deradicalisation and disengagement programmes

10. crime and terrorism prevention in the penitentiary environment

11. religious assistance for inmates detained in the custody of the National Prison Administration.

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Maria Ghiculeasa street 47
Bucharest Romania

Contact person: Daniel MOSOIA
Telephone: (+40) 737 007 344
daniel [dot] mosoiaanp [dot] gov [dot] ro (Email) | Website