The ICPA Programme Committee invites individuals, agencies and organizations interested in presenting papers at the Association’s 2014 Annual Conference to submit ideas for consideration. The theme of the organization’s 16th Annual Conference is “From Incarceration to Reintegration: Change with a Purpose”. The conference will be hosted by the Namibian Correctional Service and held in the lovely and modern city of Windhoek, Namibia from October 26-31, 2014. This is the second time that ICPA will be holding its Annual Conference in Africa, more than a decade after the first event in Cape Town, South Africa in 2000.

The theme of the Conference was chosen specifically to highlight the considerable efforts that have been made in the last decade in reforming and transforming corrections in Africa. Professional and modern correctional principles are being increasingly adopted to create a humane correctional process that focuses more on addressing offender needs for reintegration rather than only shortsighted, punitive responses to crime. Namibia is a case in point but other countries in Africa have made similar strides towards advancing ‘change with a purpose’ within their criminal justice and correctional systems.

With the conference theme in mind, the Programme Committee welcomes, in particular, proposals for presentations from African correctional professionals, the non-governmental sector, justice officials, various international agencies and/or consultants working in Africa or other developing nations, the private sector, scholars and academics interested in crime and justice issues, and any other interested individuals. Proposals are welcomed for individual papers, workshops or thematic symposia and panel presentations. The focus should be on any and all efforts for creating ‘change with a purpose’ within a correctional jurisdiction.

TOPICS

The ICPA Conference is the foremost annual international gathering for correctional officials to ‘learn from each other’. Recognizing that important ‘change with a purpose’ is occurring internationally in corrections and not just in Africa, the ICPA Programme Committee consequently also extends an invitation to international correctional colleagues to submit ideas for presentations relating to the general theme, but especially in the following related subtopics:

• Leadership in managing change in corrections (why, when and how to ‘lead’ change);
• Strategies for humane management of overcrowded and under-resourced systems;
• Addressing punitive public attitudes and lack of government support for a reintegration-focused corrections;
• Advancing integrated, criminal justice process improvement to reduce use of imprisonment;
• Engaging criminal justice partners (e.g., police, judiciary) in reducing use of imprisonment;
• Evidence-informed practice in risk management, case management and re-entry programs and initiatives (with relevance to developing correctional systems);
• Involving families of offenders in the reintegration process;
• Innovation in creating employment opportunities for ex-offenders;
• Findings from applied research projects related to reintegration practice in corrections;
• Managing special need offenders in prisons and in the community, e.g.Young offenders, Women, Substance misusers, Offenders with mental health problems, Sex offenders, Elderly offenders, Radicalized offenders
• Government – community partnerships for enhancing success of reintegration efforts;
• Promoting and developing diversion programmes and alternatives to imprisonment;
• Innovation in offender supervision strategies in parole and probation;
• “Marketing” of community corrections;
• Facility planning and design for community corrections and normative transitional facilities;
• Prison planning and design that supports progressive behavioral change and reintegration.

PAPER SELECTION

In selecting papers, priority will be given to those that are clearly related to the Conference’s main theme. Multiple submissions are permitted but only one submission will be accepted.

Again this year the Programme Committee will identify a number of outstanding submissions for presentation during the main ‘Plenary’ sessions at the conference. The selection will be based on relevance to the conference topic, breath of innovative practice and evidence of a strong research/empirical base. Preference will be given to those proposals that are developed with across agency or across-jurisdiction collaboration.

The ICPA will reply to the primary author notifying him or her of the final decision. If your abstract is accepted you will be contacted for more information if necessary.

SUBMISSION

The closing date for submissions is 15th July 2014.

Any questions or further information can be obtained from the Programme Committee via email at contacticpa@icpa.ca

Further Enquiries and Submissions are to be made in English using the ICPA online form available at: https://www.etouches.com/eselect/icpa-namibia