Siberian Federal University

The event has been organized by Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk Krai Department of the Federal Penal Service, Krasnoyarsk Department of the Russian Lawyers Association.

The conference will host round tables, workshops and seminars. Participants will discuss:

• European trends in developing juvenile justice system;
• German and Russian models of educational penitentiary centres;
• Methods and tools of working with agressive adolescents, including the methods of art therapy; participants will also give recommendations to federal and regional authorities on improving this field of work.

According to Irina Shishko, Director of Law Institute, Siberian Federal University, the representatives of German prison services could come to the conference due to the cooperation of two universities: Siberian Federal University and the University of Passau (Bavaria). «It is quite a unique experience, the cooperation of two law educational institutions turned into the cooperation of specialists of prison services, — Irina Shishko said. — For example, German specialists liked the creative competition held among Russian convicts. On the other hand, Russian specialists might like European experience of prison services».

The conference will be held at the site of Kanskaya Vospitatelnaya Colony. According to Irina Shishko, teachers and students of the Law Institute, Siberian Federal University, work at this educational penitentiary institution to carry out the psychological, social and legal project 'A Step Towards'. The project received a grant from the Russian President in 2007. SibFU's researchers has developed unique technologies to work with juvenile offenders. The methods include the prevention programmes to be carried out within and beyond a penal institution. Reoffending among the young prisoners who were involved in the programmes of social rehabilitation is 5-7% considering that reoffending among young prisoners in Russia is 35-40%.

Previous experience demonstrated that Makarenko conference was also interesting for the general public. Irina Shishko said: «The region has the population of 2 900 000 and the number of prisoners is 3 000 000. This might mean that the interest to penal institutions is not purely theoretical».