This project is related to the fields of education training, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations involved in education, training. Target group of project is professionals directly or indirectly involved in assisting the length of sentence. Specific objectives of the project is to define professional competences of prison staff (PS) directly or indirectly involved in the management of prisoners, improve the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for duties performed in the prisons. Improvement of the professional qualifications of PS will be achieved by encouraging quality improvements and internationalization at the level of training standards, in particular through enhanced transnational cooperation between education and training providers and other stakeholders. In Turkey, people graduated from high school or college can be a PS. No specific education is required to be a PS. PS actively working in prisons encounter many problems during execution of prisoners. Desensitization against crime and criminals, feelings of insecurity, pressure and threats of prisoners, feeling worthless, lack of social skills, limited field of action, social prejudices, personal inertia, and various health problems can be listed as problems faced. Target audience have difficulty in overcoming many of problems mentioned. Thus, a framework certificate of competency defining proficiency of PS, and educational modules to obtain competency and improve the professional qualifications of PS will be the major outputs of this project. Therefore, trainings of staff are important regarding the improvement of prison and probation services. Need analysis that will be figure out with the face to face questionnaires by staff working in prisons is of utmost importance to increase the feasibility of trainings. In this perspective, questionnaires will be conducted with a 400 PS, problems and needs will be identified based on the Needs Analysis and solutions will be presented. The project proposed will reveal present status, needs and difficulties of PS encountered during their duties in prisons. Education Module will include the subjects determined in Need Analyses. Each chapter of Educational Module will be written by experts from Universities and training centers. After completion of four Pilot Trainings in Tokat, Ankara, Kahramanmaras and Pitesti (Romania) using the materials prepared for Educational Module, all materials will be published. The whole educational material will be used in an another extensive training conducted in the centre of ATCSP with 15 PS and all trainings will be recorded to prepared the audio visual forms of educational module. Visual materials will be saved in DVD, CD and posted on website for free use. Website will have all written and audio-visual documents. Gaziosmanpasa University (GOU), Ankara Training Center of Prison and Detention Houses (ATCSP), General Directoriate of Prison and Detention Houses of Turkey (GDPD), Tokat T Type Open and Closed Prison (TTP) and Solidarity Association of Prison Staff (CIPDER), University of Pitesti (UPIT), Cooperativa Sociale COOSS Marche Onlus – Società Cooperativa per Azioni (COOSS Marche), National Association for Family Action (ANJAF) are the partners of project who are experienced in Prison regulations of EU Council. GDPD is the main public organization responsible from all kind of activities in Prisons of Turkey. Being a partner of this project, GDPD will be responsible to the use of cataloque and educational module using in the trainings of PS in all training centers. CIPDER is the only non profit organization of PS and has 14.000 members. CIPDER will inform all the members about the project and help to disseminate the project results. ATCSP is the largest training center of PS in Turkey and conducts trainings throughout the year. The trainers are experienced in the problems and trainings of PS. They will be very active in every stage of the project and after the completion of project. UPIT has recently completed MAJMIN project with the goal of "to increase the specific professional training provisions that will enforce the involvement of different parts involved in the management of juvenile crime, for a better response to needs for social inclusion of minor offenders". COOSS Marche and ANJAF have also extensive experiences on adult training, European Rules and Regulation on Prison. Experiences of partners and outputs of their projects completed will be transferred to improve the professional qualifications of PS, to prepare a quality catalogue to define the requirements to obtain, and prepare educational modules to be used in the trainings of PS. Each partner will have responsibilities on disseminating the project activities and project outputs.
In Turkey, no specific education is required to be a prison staff (PS). PS actively working in prisons encounter many problems during execution of prisoners. Desensitization against crime and criminals, feelings of insecurity, pressure and threats of prisoners, feeling worthless, lack of social skills, limited field of action, social prejudices, personal and professional burnout, and various health problems can be listed as problems faced. PS has difficulty in overcoming many of problems mentioned. Thus, this project is related to the fields of vocational education and training (VET), developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations involved in education, training. Target group of this project is professionals directly or indirectly involved in assisting the length of sentence. Main objectives of the project are to define professional and social competences of PS, improve the level of key professional and social competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for duties performed in the prisons. Gaziosmanpasa University (GOU), Ankara Training Center of Prison and Detention Houses (ATCP), Turkish General Directorate of Prison and Detention Houses (GDPD), Tokat T Type Closed and Open Prison (TTP) and Association of Assistance and Solidarity for Prison Staff (AASP), University of Pitesti (UPIT), Social Cooperative Nonprofit Organization (COOSS), National Association for Family Action (ANJAF) were the partners of project who are experienced in Prison regulations of EU Council. GOU, which is coordinator of the project, is experienced and applied so many national and international projects. GDPD is the main public organization responsible from all kind of activities in Prisons of Turkey. AASP is the only non-profit organization of PS in Turkey. ATCP is the largest training center of PS in Turkey and conducts trainings throughout the year. In order to develop professional competencies and increase social competencies of PS, SWOT analysis, need analysis and questionnaires, quality catalogue, educational modules and pilot and main trainings were performed. Therefore, in the first step SWOT analysis for PS was applied in order to see the current situation of this profession in Turkey. Second, need analysis and questionnaires were implemented with the face to face and online questionnaires by staff working in prisons. In the collection of data for needs analysis, 970 people were reached with the random sampling method; 455 of these responded. Third, quality catalogue was developed to determine professional and social competencies of PS. The catalogue consists of 3 core competency areas (professionalism, working with others, professional development), 12 sub-competency areas and 162 performance indicators. This catalogue has the characteristic of being the first quality catalogue developed for prison staff in Turkey. Fourth, education modules were prepared. When developing these modules, expert opinions, needs analysis data and basic and sub-competencies within the quality catalogue were taken into consideration. Each chapter of educational module was written by experts from Universities and training centers. The efficiency of the prepared educational modules were tested with pilot and main trainings, both in Turkey and abroad. In the pilot trainings, participants’ opinions were taken via an evaluation survey. In the final step, a website (http://prisonstaff-project.eu/) was created for the promotion and dissemination of the project and for beneficiaries to easily access project outputs. Also, a learning management system was added to the website, providing the beneficiaries the opportunity to utilize project outputs in an interactive way. Into this system, besides all relevant reference books and audio-visual materials (videos made at the main training, lesson presentations etc.), interactive materials such as question bank and animation were also added. In this way, it was aimed to reach prison staff that due to limitations could not receive training during the project and to support their professional and social developments based on lifelong learning. In order to achieve the objective of the project primarily a situation analysis was made by putting forth the internal and external dynamics of the penal system. The biggest contribution of the project to its participants and project partners however, is that it sets forth a competency framework concerning prison staff in EU standards for the first time. Also educational modules were developed to support the competencies of PS. These modules were published in the project website, providing access to prison staff both in Europe and in Turkey. This project overall made an important contribution to the improvement of the penitentiary system in Turkey in line with European Prison Rules and other international standards.