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Presenting DOMICE to the European Community in Brussels

Publication date: 21-12-2011

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The Catalonian delegation to the EU was generous in organising a presentation of the DOMICE project at their offices in Brussels. This final presentation was a chance for members of the European community to become familiar with the DOMICE project. The project, in which CEP was a partner, is finalising its research and results. "I am very happy that the Generalitat de Catalunya provided us with this opportunity to present," says Steve Pitts, project director at NOMS in London. "This is an important opportunity to display the project results to senior members at the European policy level."

The final stage
The subject of the DOMICE project is case management of offenders in Europe. More information can be found on the Events page. The project team has finished its research and is in the final stage of the project. Steve Pitts has been working towards this point for more than three years. "DOMICE has already been valuable for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the project partners and participants. The presentation in Brussels demonstrated how we can disseminate the outcomes to other countries and at the level of European policy, sharing the knowledge we have gathered - an essential conclusion to the project."

DOMICE in the context of European research
The audience listened to presentations that summarised the methodology and aims of DOMICE. "But our project is part of a jigsaw of research and projects in the field of criminal justice in Europe," says Steve Pitts. "The connection with other work at a European level was apparent in the discussion and questions from the audience. Our findings complement the outcomes of other projects, as a part of the European Commission's broader criminal justice policy, helping to fill gaps in European understanding of what is effective in reducing re-offending and in working across the borders of nations and jurisdictions. It was valuable to explain DOMICE but also to do this in the larger context."

To achieve better Case Management
The subject of case management (CM) did not receive a great deal of attention at European level before DOMICE. "The interesting thing is, however," emphasises Steve Pitts in his presentation, "that every jurisdiction does it. In fact it is one of the most fundamental ways in which jurisdictions manage offenders to achieve the sentencing goals including the reduction of re-offending, increased public protection or restorative justice. In every country offenders are dealt with by more organisations than just the prison. Large sums of money are invested in this chain of institutions, but the management of the process is often unclear and poorly managed." The national governments are responsible for CM and are increasingly shaped by policies from the EU. "For this reason, continues Steve Pitts, "member states could not only benefit from improvements to CM locally by integrating the system as much as possible, but also need to take into account Framework Decisions on probation. So the ultimate goal of reducing recidivism can be achieved in a more cost-efficient way and with the help of lessons learned from other countries."

The DOMICE website will be launched in the upcoming months, more information will follow.