European prisons that have participated in collaborative projects/mobilities

GREECE

Avlona Prison

Avlona Special Juvenile Detention Establishment (Ekkn)

Halden Prison carried out 1 Grundtvig project together with Oslo Prison, as well as 1 Erasmus + project together with Halden Prison.

Avlona prison in Greece is a special youth detention center located north of Athens. It has faced issues with overcrowding, violence, and poor conditions, including incidents like violent clashes between inmates and police raids for contraband like drugs and knives. Despite these challenges, it also houses educational programs, with one teacher having created a TV channel to deliver lessons to inmates

Focus on Education:

A pivotal point in the prison's history was the establishment of a secondary education school unit (both Gymnasium and Lyceum levels) within the prison. This school, started by director Petros Damianos around 2000, provides a full curriculum, allowing inmates to earn graduation certificates and even take national exams to gain access to university studies.

SPAIN - Catalonia

Centre Penitenciari Quatre Camins

The Quatre Camins Penitentiary Center, inaugurated in 1989, was the first prison facility built by the Generalitat de Catalunya since it assumed the powers in criminal execution in 1984. It is located in the municipality of La Roca del Vallès and has a total capacity of 1,594 places for adult punishable men in an ordinary regime mostly and open. In 2003 and 2006 the center was remodeled to expand the initial places.

717 residential cells, 174 singular cells:

nursing unit
Psychiatric Unit
Special Department
Special Department of Closed Regime
Department of Security Measures
Income Unit

Lithuania

4Panevezys Correction House (woman prison)

1,5-2 hour to drive from Vilnius to Panevezys

Single Occupancy Cells, Double Occupancy Cells, Multiple Occupancy Cells, Dormitories, Closed Prison, Halfway House, Open Prison, Remand prison, Semi-open Prison, Women’s Prison.

Official design capacity of this prison 425

Collaborative project with Halden Prison in Erasmus +, International-certification

The Netherlands

Norgerhaven Veenhuizen

Collaborative project with Romerike Prison in Erasmus +, Digital competence in European prisons

Norgerhaven prison is located in the city Veenhuizen in the northern part of the Netherlands.

The Penitentiary Institution (PI) Veenhuizen consists of the locations Esserheem and Norgerhaven. The Esserheem location, together with Norgerhaven, forms the Penitentiary Institution (PI) Veenhuizen.

Esserheem is a prison and Remand Center (HvB). Regular detainees stay there, but there are also three departments for special target groups. There are 24 places for long-term prisoners, 24 places for the father wing, and 24 places in the very limited security facility (ZBBI). One department (24 places) is set up as a Remand Center.

The father wing originated from the Family Approach project (together with PI Leeuwarden). In this department, detained fathers follow a special program to maintain the bond with their children as well as possible. The aim is to prevent “detention damage” to the child as much as possible. In other words: the child is central.

In the ZBBI department, detainees who are in the final phase of their sentence and who have already earned certain freedoms stay. For example, they are allowed to work outside the prison walls during the day and have weekend leave to get used to and prepare for a return to society.

In the Remand Center, detainees who have been placed in pre-trial detention and are still awaiting a court decision in their criminal case are held.

Esserheem has a capacity of 239 cells (excluding multi-person cell use).

BULGARIA

Sofia Prison is one of the oldest and largest functioning prisons оn the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. It was erected in 1903, on the model of the modern Western European prisons from the beginning of the 20th century. The penitentiary was officially inaugurated in

It has a total area of 3737 m2.

IITALY

Casa Circondariale Livorno - Le Sughere Prison

House of Detention Elba

Casa di Reclusione di Bollate Milano

Colonia Penale di Mamone - Centro Provinciale Istruzione Adulti

Badu 'e Carros - Centro Provinciale Istruzione Adulti

Characteristics and history: Mamone Institute is an open institution for people who are at the end of their sentence but who have no more than six years left. The place has certification for agricultural work. Since its construction (late 1800), the penal colony's vocation has been to offer inmates better job opportunities in the livestock sector and, more generally, the management of the farm. The agricultural colony of the Mamone prison extends over a territory of about 2,700 hectares, largely owned by the administration.