The decision to build up an international training programme for pastoral prison aid came at the end of a congress of the German pastoral prison aid association "Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft seelsorgerlich-diakonischer Gefährdetenhilfen (BSDG) e.V." , which ended on Monday in Waren (Müritz).

The 180 delegates represented 36 pastoral prisoner aid associations from 14 countries on four continents. A focal point of the congress was the developments in penal systems and prisoner aid in Eastern and Western Europe. Here, Dr. Klaus Koespel, a penal system president from the Rhineland with many years of international experience, described the Western European states as the "problem children in penal system development" . For example, in Germany perpetrators of serious crimes are increasingly being denied the opportunity of probation, which leaves these people resigned to a life behind bars. "For the first time, we are seeing a development of real lifers' in the German penal system, and we need to prepare ourselves for offenders dying in prison. That is something we didn't even dream of 25 years ago" , said Dr. Koepsel. At the same time, prison officers could not understand why these people should be treated in prison if one did not expect to release them anyway.

Increased efforts in vocational training, especially for young people, was the demand put forward by member of the state parliament and chairman of the legal committee, Bodo Krumbholz (SPD), during a panel discussion. 72% of these young people had no school qualifications. Modern security technology in the prisons could free officers up, for example for educational tasks.

The head of the research institute of the penal service of the Russian Federation, Prof. Oleg Kovalev, reported on the urgently needed expansion of prisoner aid structures in his country. The Russian Federation has reduced the number of prisoners from formerly 1.3 million to 760,000 today. So the many released convicts this has produced find themselves confronted with the problems of finding accommodation and work and of building new relationships in freedom, reported Kovalev. But also for the penal system, social commitment within prison walls was important, emphasized the scientist. "Around 20 laws to reform the penal system had been adopted over recent years. But that only works if the thinking among prison employees changes" , insisted Kovalev. In his opinion, regular training and visits by social work groups in prisons are contributing to this change. The prison missions are making an exemplary commitment with a project in Ulan Ude as part of the Prison Mission of the Russian Federation, and have agreed regular exchanges of experience and joint programmes with the Russian penal service.

Various new pastoral prisoner aid projects were presented in Waren: A farm for released prisoners in the Kenyan highlands, a counselling group in the women's prison in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, medical help for prisoners in Southern India or a day care centre for the children of prostitutes in Sao Paolo. A "Foundation for International Pastoral Prisoner Aid" should promote these and other newly founded initiatives and its founding is being prepared for early next year.

In addition, the pastoral prison missions worldwide want to commit even more to training voluntary workers: a training course of around 500 pages has been translated into English. This course will be worked on further for use on four continents.