Living Labs are an inclusive and collaborative approach for identifying needs of front-line practitioners and policy makers and co-design responses. Living Labs are meant in this case to focus specifically on the issue of transition management of violent extremists offenders (VEOs) and on the cooperation among stakeholders in a multi-agency approach for their reintegration at the local level. This approach is key as prison staff, security sector and local authorities should work together for an effective reintegration and to minimize the risk of recividism.
During the EUTEx Living Lab in Madrid, participants discussed the objectives, tasks, activities, methods, tools, challenges and needs that emerge during the rehabilitation and reintegration process of extremist inmates. The results of the Living Lab will directly inform the design and contents of the training course that will be developed in the framework of the EUTEx project.
The EUTEx Living Lab in Madrid, consisted of a heterogeneous group of 19 professionals who play different and complementary roles in the different phases of the rehabilitation and reintegration of VEOs. Specifically, the participants in the Living lab were prison and probation specialised staff, NGOs exit workers, P/CVE specialists and other local authorities, as well as policy makers involved in reintegration work. The participants came from 11 countries including Albania, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
Agenda
Meeting topic: Multi-agency cooperation and transition management in the rehabilitation and reintegration of extremist inmates
Day 1. 24th May 2022
| Time | Topic | Owner |
| 9:30 | Welcome | Álvaro Vicente and Carola García-Calvo |
| 9:45 | Who is in the room? Experiences dealing with extremist offenders’ disengagement, deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration | All participants |
| 10:45 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:00 | Exercise 1: Risk & Needs Assessment and case management | All participants |
| 12:45 | Lunch time | |
| 14:00 | Exercise 2: Transition from prison to release | All participants |
| 15:30 | Coffee Break | |
| 15:45 | Continuation of Exercise 2 | All participants |
| 16:30 | Plenary session | |
| 17:00 | Closing remarks and end of the Day 1 | Álvaro Vicente & Carola García-Calvo |
Day 2. 25th May 2022
| Time | Topic | Owner |
| 9:00 | Recap of the Day 1 | Álvaro Vicente and Carola García-Calvo |
| 9:10 | Exercise 3: Working with young people and communities | Maite García (Madrid Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Juvenile Offenders) All participants |
| 10:30 | Coffee Break | |
| 10:45 | Continuation Exercise 3 | All participants |
| 12:00 | Lunch time | |
| 13:30 | Exercise 4: Testing a multi-agency approach to rehabilitation and reintegration | All participants |
| 14:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 14:30 | Plenary session | All participants |
| 15:00 | Closing remarks and end of the Day 2 | Álvaro Vicente & Carola García-Calvo |
About EUTEx Project
EUTEx is a EU-funded research project that collects and evaluates existing best practices and creates a new framework for disengagement and reintegration of violent extremists offenders (VEOs), which includes the development of a tool for risk assessment for reintegration purposes, a training course and modules and involves specific approaches for women and children. EUTEx focuses specifically on specialised first-line professionals: primarily prison staff (in particular psychologists and social workers), probation officers and professionals involved in the multi-agency approach such as exit workers, police officers, members of the local administration, policy makers and researchers.
