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- Published: March 14, 2016
TAIEX study visit from a high-ranking delegation representing Jordanian law enforcement agencies to the IRZ in Bonn
Under the leadership of General Mohammad Al Kharabsheh, Head of the Judicial Police Force at the Police Headquarters in Jordan, and Brigadier Sameer Bakeer, Director of the Prison Service in Jordan, the delegation learned about "Fundamental security measures and dynamic security concepts in penal institutions" during their visit to Germany from 7 to 11 March.
The guests also took part in expert discussions with the Bremen Senate for Justice and the Constitution, with the IRZ in Bonn, at the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg, at the "Ambulanter Justizsozialdienst Niedersachsen" (a walk-in centre for legal and social affairs for Lower Saxony) in Oldenburg and at penal institutions in Bremen, Bremerhaven and Oldenburg. The leadership and organisation of the study trip was in the expert hands of Torben Adams, the prison director of a young offenders' institute in Bremen and a project leader at the Bremen Senate for Justice and the Constitution. As an expert for the IRZ, he devised the entire programme for the visit and accompanied the delegation to all their meetings. Torben Adams is an acknowledged expert in Jordanian penal institutions and between 2012 and 2014 was a team leader involved in the successful implementation of prison reform in Jordan, which was led by the IRZ and funded by an EU grant.
During the visit to the IRZ in Bonn, the guests were introduced to current developments and EU practices in terms of dynamic security concepts during enforcement, follow-up care or the reintegration of offenders, as well as to alternative penal sanctions, and their potential for application in Jordan was discussed. For the Jordanian guests, references to similar problem areas in other partner countries of the IRZ were also very illuminating.
Against the background of a significant increase in the crime rate, which is also related to the high levels of migration to Jordan from neighbouring crisis regions, the security aspect has definitely been brought to the fore for the Jordanian authorities, as well as for the Jordanian public as opposwd to alternative law enforcement measures. Weighing this issue therefore represents a major challenge for the future development of the penal system in Jordan.