Circles in Latvia Implementation

Transcription

1 Circles in Latvia Implementation Coordinators: Andis Apsitis, Iveta Darzniece, Kristiana Lapina

2 Circle in Valmiera

3 Description of Core member (CM) age years in prison (offended at age 15) introvert, challenge to express verbally low self-catering skills poor life, work and healthy relationship experience at the bottom of the society in real life and also in prison

4 Description of the volunteers Iveta 38, teacher of ethics and a sewer, have experience working with prisoners, member of Roman Catholic Church Aleksandrs 47, IT specialist, former offender, handicapped, member of Adventist Church Artis 29, works in a primary school, is getting a secondary education, former offender, member of Pentacostal Church Laura 25, an entrepreneur and a mediator

5 Description of outer circle Sandra Service Director Social Service Ilze Social Worker CM residence Inese Psyhologist Ruta Orphan's Court Member CM residence Agnese Senior Inspector State Inspectorate For Protection Of Children's Rights Ināra local Police Inspector

6 Circle agreement - The Circle agreement is signed by all Circle members during the first Circle meeting with the core member Circle minutes are written after each Circle meeting and sent to the Circle coordinator

7 Challenges 1. Information at the last notice 2. Living with the victim in poor conditions 3. Strong influence from the family 4. Strong influence from official parties not having all info about them at the start 5. Busy schedule volunteers and coordinator 6. Support for the volunteers 7. Distance (30 km) from CM to volunteers

8 What have we done Creative expression Talking, sharing in all variations Confronting Activities Visiting Meeting family and state parties Inviting for more

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10 3 key achievements 1. Circle is still going on 2. No new crimes 3. Core member is becoming more open

11 3 key outstanding issues 1. CM living with the victim 2. Poor motivation to change anything 3. Circle conflict with the mother 4.? No volunteers in CM residence

12 Circles in Riga The second Latvian Circle became operational in March 2014

13 The second Latvian Circle In March 2014 volunteers were introduced to each other without the Core member present In March and April 2014 there were three Circle meetings and one theatre attendance with one of Circle s volunteer

14 Core member s profile (CM): age 22 years old in February 2013 conditionally sentenced with imprisonment with 5 years long probation (until 2018) Convicted for sexual abuse of young girl at friend s apartment (he did that secretly from friend and that was done ~5 years ago his risk of sexual re-offending assessed as medium;

15 Core member s profile (CM): lack of stable employment don t have plans for future, no ambitions spends a lot of time at computer (playing games, surfing internet, watching TVseries, movies (torrents)) read all Harry Potter books and in general prefers fantasy genre for leisure time activities (games, movies, books) lives with mother (don t have father)

16 Volunteers Circle consists of 6 volunteers: Imants, Vilnis, Mārīte, Andrejs, Tamāra, Audra Circle agreement - The Circle agreement is signed by all Circle members during the first Circle meeting with the core member

17 Volunteers Volunteer agreement will be signed when volunteer is sure about his willingness to participate in the project Circle minutes are written after each Circle meeting and sent to the Circle coordinator

18 3 key achievements On achievements of Circle: hard to comment as only 3 meetings held, but 1. Circle is still going on 2. No new crimes

19 3 key outstanding issues Meetings with Core member mainly were held within premises of Probation Service (several of them directly after his meeting with probation case manager) Looks that for now Core member don t understand how Circle differs from other probation interventions During meeting there are some misunderstandings with Core member because volunteers don t have same amount of information from previous meetings - in notes you can t write everything

20 Third Circle in Riga We are not working with the Core Member yet Reasons: There have been unsuccessful discussions with the case managers and prison staff. Three of the candidates were not suited for circle. Discussions are held with the following candidates at the moment.

21 Problems and their solutions Main problem: lack of proper information exchange Closer correspondance with the Case managers Additional information Training for the volunteers Exchange of information between volunteers

22 Thank You!

23 This publication has been funded by of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of State Probation Service of Latvia and can in no way be taken to reflect the views.