The ambition of this project was to enable prison officers, SPIP probation counselors and their NGO partners to participate in a mobility project, as they are regularly confronted with an increasing number of international prisoners, ex-offenders or people under probation. By training these staff members abroad during English language courses and study visits into foreign institutions, the aim was to improve their communicative and intercultural skills and thus human relationships with the beneficiaries they have to attend to. As part of the project of new prison facility currently under construction in Bordeaux-Gradignan, the CPBG management also wanted to motivate the staff and value and enhance the work performed by prison wardens by inviting the staff to reflect on the good practices observed abroad. For the consortium as a whole, the implementation of this project was also the opportunity for the different institutions involved to have their staff meet, to get to know each other better and therefore to promote the partnership around the quality of service provided to prisoners and persons in rehabilitation, while encouraging innovation, penitentiary training and work, local, national and international cooperation.
Following its 2017 report on EU prison systems and conditions of detention in its member states, the European Commisison defined the treatment of prison interns as a top priority, as a means to support the social (re)integration of former convicts and to fight against recidivism. In that context, the application for this project also followed the reception at INSUP of an Italian partner delegation in 2019 on the theme of training and integration of detainees or persons under alternative judicial sanctions. During a job shadowing visit, Italian partners wanted to get to know the Service Pénitentiaire d'Insertion et de Probation de la Gironde (SPIP 33) and visited the penitentiary facility of Bordeaux Gradignan (CPBG) to find about their functioning and the actions implemented for the prison population. The associations ALIFS, MAI33 and INSUP were also hosting partners of this delegation. Seduced by this innovative initiative, the former director of CPBG asked INSUP, as a training provider within the penitentiary centre, to implement international mobilities aimed at improving the skills of the staff during sudy visits and courses abroad.