Poland has a socially disproportionate system of penalising petty crime, resulting in a record-breaking population of inmates (85,000, Penitentiary Forum 9/2013) and persons awaiting to serve time (40,000, Penitentiary Forum 1/2014), and an inefficient resocialising system; current and former inmates are a group hugely prone to exclusion due to difficulties in returning to social life and the labour market (Szczygieł, “Prevention or Re-Imprisonment?”).
The project purpose was to prevent exclusion of offenders or petty criminals by providing advisory services, co-ordinating restricted freedom and community service sentences, and popularising restorative justice.
Support was offered to ca. 400 individuals in trouble with the law, including co-ordination of non-isolation sentences for 150 convicts. Around 500 law enforcement employees were told of restorative justice-related concepts and practicalities.
Two Restorative Justice Centres (Toruń, Białystok) and an Information Office (District Court, Białystok) were set up. Twenty new institutions where it is possible to perform socially useful work were added; sentence co-ordination was provided for 150 persons. Counselling and other aid (therapy, job, benefits seeking) was provided to 114 convicts; 12 attended Aggression Replacement Training. Different forms of aid were provided to 1,000 court clients. Eighty law enforcement employees (judges, prosecutors, police officers, probation officers, mediators) attended training courses; 400 participated in conference lectures. A film and class script were developed to promote restorative justice.
Different forms of aid were offered to around 1,200 persons (including ca. 400 convicts) from Toruń and Białystok areas, and to approximately 500 law enforcement employees from throughout Poland.
The Norwegian Mediation Service Konfliktrådet trained mediators, probation officers, and employees of Restorative Justice Centres. An Association for the Integration of Children and Young People co-organised work in Białystok.