Online workshops in Nis prison

On August 11th through 13th, 2020, a three-day workshop was for the first time in the history of the Serbian penal sanctions execution system held online with the attendees from the KPZ Nis and trainers located in Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad.

The innovative and alternative intervention programme training sessions for the prisoners and the prison employees, created by the Centre for Human Rights Nis, within Help’s re-socialisation component, is being implemented in the correctional facility KPZ Nis (Kazneno-popravni zavod Nis) since 2019.

The workshops were regularly held in the Nis Prison premises with the selected group of prisoners trained to be the trainers and multiply the skills – the peer education, to help prisoners control and manage aggression and anger, thus significantly reducing the risks in the prison community.

Structured in four modules the programme based on the community psychology concept aims to train a group of prisoners and the instructors in the prison treatment system to learn to recognize and facilitate knowledge and skills to control aggression and anger among convicted persons in the execution of penal sanctions system.

One of the workshops from the last module, however, had to be organized differently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the technical equipment donated by Help within the German-funded regional project, laptops earlier and tablets within the COVID19 Response. Technical service within the prison was able to connect seven prisoners, and four treatment instructors – prison employees, with the trainers for three days. Prisoners and employees faced with the online workshop model for the first time were thrilled and successful in learning. Active and focused during the workshop they contributed successfully and concluded that together they can achieve anything. Skills and knowledge gained, including the online workshop, remain theirs to use them in real life, after the prison time.