Systemic Approaches In Rehabilitation in a Prison Setting Inclusive Education and Rehabilitation Model for Juvenile Offenders

Edited by: Joseph Giordmaina and Michela Scalpello

In 2019, a group or representatives from various countries interested in education and rehabilitation in prisons, through the Erasmus+ programme, sub-programme for Support for Policy Reform, submitted an application according the call for proposal EACEA-34-2019 in the Action: Social Inclusion through Education, Training and Youth. The focus of this sub action is the Social Inclusion and Common Values: The Contribution in the Field of Education. The partners meet informally to discuss the application, and decided to focus on an inclusive approach to persons in prison, social rehabilitation and education. Following the application stage, the partners were awarded funding for a three-year project entitled: Inclusive Approach to Inmate Social Rehabilitation and Education, the acronym of which is REEDU. The partnership is made up of the applicant organisation, Centre for Education and Culture Trebnje (CIK), The Slovenia Association for Social Work (ACSW), the Prison Education and Re-Entry Platform, University of Malta (UM), the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology Europe (IACFP Europe), the Bremen Ministry of Justice and Constitution and Baia Mare Prison, Romania. The partnership was rewarded close to half a million euros to complete the project. The Project This project promotes the idea that resilience and desistence to crime need the support of the family and the community, and that it is necessary for successful rehabilitative programmes in prisons, particularly those focused on work with juveniles, to include significant others in their programmes. The family is considered to be the first model of a community in which we socialise, in which we share values, such as those of truth, respect, love and solidarity (Brighouse & Swift, 2014). It is the place where we are nurtured and initiated in the norms of the society we live in. These values are then shared with the extended family, and eventually with the outside world, such as schools, the place of work and one’s greater social circle.