European Communities of Restoration

Main Contacts: Caroline Lanskey with Margaret Wilson

This study documented and evaluated the pilot of six innovative restorative justice programmes for prisoners and/or recently released prisoners in Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Latvia. The programmes, implemented under the general heading of European Communities of Restoration (ECOR), are based on the APAC (Association for the Protection and Assistance of Convicts) model developed in Brazil and widely used in South America and internationally. The ECOR programmes were piloted with funding from the European Union in order to determine: 1) whether the APAC model can operate successfully in the European context, 2) what changes and adaptations are necessary to prisons and their environs to enable APAC-based programmes to function, 3) what legislative rules/interpretations facilitate or hinder the implementation of rehabilitation programmes based on the APAC model, and 4) how the programmes are received and perceived by those who facilitate, deliver and participate in them. More detail about the ECOR programme and links to the research reports are available here: http://restorative-justice.eu/ecor/project/