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From the 28th to the 29th November 2014 in Tbilisi city, Georgia was held the International Conference entitled "National Probation Agency: Reality and Challenges" organized by the National Probation Agency (NPA) from Georgia in cooperation with the US Embassy and INL organization from USA. The meeting provided a platform to develop and gain multilateral regional cooperation on probation system.
This forum was attended by about 120 people from 27 countries, representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations and NGOs. Also, the representative of the probation system in Moldova was Ghenadie CEBAN, the head of External Relations Service.
The conference was opened by the President of the European Confederation of Probation (CEP), Marc CERON, which stated the importance of this event at international level and the exchange of experience to collaborate with the probation services.
The head of the National Probation Agency, Giorgi ARSOSHVILI, reported that “Georgia has an experience of only a decade, compared to some European countries, which already have 150 years of experience in this area, but the achievements are impressive enough, even within a rather short time”. It is also pointed the downward trend of the probation subjects, over 18,000 probation subjects in 2011 and 10,623 subjects (of which 222-minors, 597-women) on October 31st, 2014, showing a significant decrease in crime in recent years. At the moment, within the NPA are working 374 employees, of which 204 probation counsellors, 33 social workers, and 11 psychologists. The NAP includes 65 units, of which: 1- central office, 11 Regional Offices, 52 district offices and 1-detention centre with a semi-free regime. In 2013, was created the Division of rehabilitation programs, in which are working 33 social workers, 11 psychologists and 5 managers.
The key expert in probation, Randel Barrows, from the EU funded project: “Support for Criminal Justice Reform in Georgia, implemented by "Hulla&Co. Human Dynamics KG" reported that: “the probation body in Georgia is a dynamic organization with insight that can make a significant contribution to the judiciary reform. There are significant progress towards an European model of community sanctions and measures. The staff is young, enthusiastic and hardworking, responding positively to new methods that embrace the ideal of rehabilitation. The challenges remain, but they are mostly seen as opportunities rather than threats ... It was an honour and a pleasure for me to work with the Agency in the last two years”.
However, during the meeting, the participants discussed about the creation of a database, creation of an internal training centre of the NPA staff, the procurement and development of new rehabilitation programs, increasing the number of psychologists for 2016, the human resources policy reform, improvement of local legislation in accordance with EU requirements, individual work planning system with the probation subject.
