An update on the achievements and challenges of CEP’s Board The current Board of CEP is half way through its term. President Marc Cerón chose this as the time to write a ‘Midterm Letter' to update all CEP members. CEP asked for feedback to the letter from Ireland and the Czech Republic. Michael Donnellan, the former Director of the Probation Service in Ireland (currently Director General of the Irish Prison Service) and Pavel Stern, Director of the Probation and Mediation Service in the Czech Republic, reacted positively to the letter. Read more ISTEP Project: paving the way for Framework Decision 947 The implementation of the Framework Decision (FD) 947 on probation is hot topic in the European criminal justice sector. Several countries have initiated a project, The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. The British project is ISTEP, lead by NOMS (National Offender Management Service UK), CEP is an assistant partner. Ioan Durnescu, lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania, is involved as a partner in the ISTEP project. In most countries the implementation of the FD is delayed. "I think it is crucial nowadays is to make sure that the implementation of the mutual trust instruments goes smooth and without major difficulties. The ISTEP project helps in this respect." Read more Dealing with domestic violence in support groups One out of ten women in France in the age 18-59 has been victim of domestic violence. In 2008 no less than 156 women died as a result of violence inflicted by their partner. The French Ministry of Justice and Liberties set up a pilot project to prevent domestic violence and to combat recidivism in this area. The core of the project was the establishment of support groups for the perpetrators of domestic violence. Eight questions to Mrs Moiron-Braud, Head of the victims' support and civil society policies office at the Ministry of Justice and Liberties. Read more European Handbook COSA Implementation now available In the framework of the European project ‘Circles Europe: Together for Safety', an innovative sex offender programme for safe re-integration implemented in the Netherlands and Belgium, with the help of the British NGO Circles UK. The lessons learned in this project have been extensively described in a European Handbook (downloadable via the CEP website). "With the Handbook we aim to support the implementation of the COSA-programme in other European countries while maintaining the high quality of deliverance that has been established thus far", explains researcher and author of the book Mechtild Höing. Read more Miscellaneous News At the offices, CEP regularly receives (e)mail on events, publications and developments in the field of probation in Europe and even beyond. As some of these items may be of interest to our member organisations, CEP brings you a selection of this news. Read the news Twitter CEP_comm: Knowledge base: Marc Cerón's Midterm Letter in English, French and German - http://t.co/i1ANHdB7 CEP_comm: Registration for CEP Conference on Electronic Monitoring 2012 is now open! - http://t.co/3xFKf891       Visit our website: www.cep-probation.org Contact us? Postbus 8215 NL-3503 RE, Utrecht, The Netherlands communication@cep-probation.org