ABOUT THE PROJECT

Prison staff are facing increasing workloads due to the growing number of people in prison, the different characteristics of prisoners and problems such as substance abuse. This threatens their ability to fulfil their mission to resocialise prisoners and reduce recidivism. An appropriate screening tool for assessing risk and needs in correctional institutions can help professionals to provide adequate support. Slovenia has developed such a screening tool in the framework of a Council of Europe project involving international experts and a working group of the Prison Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (URSIKS). 

This project focuses on the validation of this screening tool. The validated tool will enable practitioners in the prison system to more effectively identify and manage the risks and needs of prisoners, which can contribute to reducing recidivism rates and increasing the safety of society.The first step of the project is developing a research protocol to determine baseline data and the time period for monitoring recidivism. The next step is data extraction, where information will be collected from individuals who served a prison sentence in the selected year. This will be followed by the validation of the screening tool through statistical analyses.

 New insights into the screening tool and its potential refinements will enable advances in the theory and practice of risk and needs assessment that will benefit both academic researchers and practitioners in the prison system. 

Project Type: Target Research Programme

Grant Agreement Number: V5-24012

Duration: 1. 10. 2024 – 30. 9. 2025

Project members