From 21. to 24. April 2024, the “Technology in Corrections Conference” of EuroPris, a network organisation of European prison administrations, took place in Istanbul. The conference provided an opportunity to gain experience with state-of-the-art digital solutions in the field of criminal justice information management. Dmitry Nurumov travelled to the Bosporus on behalf of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) together with Baiastan Osmonaliev, Aibek Ramankulov and Nurtai Abdyldaev, three IT experts from the Kyrgyz state-owned company Ukuk. As part of the project “Support to Justice Sector Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic: Advancing Probation and Integrated Justice Information Management (JUST4ALL)”, they are supporting the Kyrgyz government in further improving the criminal justice system.

After the reception and two intensive days of plenary sessions and workshops, the conference programme included prison tours. These were organised by the Turkish General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Centres. Our experts were able to visit the Kocaeli F Type High Security Closed Prison as well as the Kocaeli Open Prison.

Together with other conference participants, they exchanged ideas and experiences in Istanbul in order to develop progressive and ethical digital solutions for the prison system and probation services.

The project “Supporting Justice Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic: Promoting Probation and Integrated Justice Information Management (JUST4ALL)” is a four-year project co-funded by the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and implemented by the UNODC in partnership with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR). It promotes the humanisation of the criminal justice system in the Kyrgyz Republic and aims to improve the country’s capacity to implement its criminal justice reforms in line with international standards and norms as well as European best practices. The two main components of the project concern the following areas of criminal justice reform: probation and information management.