Prison Oversight: Improving Rights in Europe project hosts meeting with senior prison managers from Spain, Belgium and Romania

The Law School was delighted to host an online meeting on Friday October 24 2025 as part of the European Research Council funded project Prison Oversight: Improving Rights in Europe (POIRE) led by PI Prof Mary Rogan. POIRE seeks to improve awareness, understanding and responsivity in and of states to a visit from the Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). This meeting brought together senior prison officials from Spain, Belgium and Romania together with the research team: Prof. Rogan, Dr. Sophie van der Valk and Dr. Niamh Wade, to discuss the project's findings on how senior staff experience a CPT visit. Themes discussed included the challenge of responding to a CPT visit while also managing other aspects of one's work as a prison manager, the importance of the European element of the CPT's work, and the opportunities for learning and benchmarking improvements a CPT visit can bring. The POIRE team will be producing materials to support prison staff in preparing for and responding to a visit from the CPT. POIRE has already produced materials for people in prison in English, Flemish, and Romanian (available here), with other languages to follow . The POIRE team is deeply grateful to the participants for giving generously of their time, experience and expertise which will provide very valuable input into the development of future programmes and materials.