Project objectives

1. To upscale existing practices and understand their role for a holistic prevention of radicalisation and disengagement / de-radicalisation

2. To develop a skills-enhancement programme for frontline staff working with inmates throughout its transition back into society, including prison and probation staff, and community organisations working closely with the prison services

3. To establish a local mentorship model to support ex-radicals upon release and their families ​

4. To ensure knowledge sharing and collaboration among the relevant authorities and organisations regarding people who vulnerable to radicalisation or who have been radicalised, who are in prison, and on their release. This is to ensure that radicalised people start on a coherent process during and after their prison sentence, to stop their radicalisation as early as possible.

Expected impacts

​INTEGRA project is expected to improve, on the one hand, the set of skills of prison and probation professionals on how to identify and prevent radicalisation in detention and, on the other, the skills of community organisations’ practitioners (including religious organisations) working closely with the prison services in preparing continuity of support from prison to release. In fact, services responsible for offenders in post-release contexts bear an increasing burden as they seek to manage risks related to violent extremism while ensuring that offenders are supported and reintegrated post-release.

1. Increased awareness about the phenomenon of radicalisation and extremism that lead to terrorism in detention environments (national and EU levels) including the personal, structural, ideological, political and social drivers;
2. Improved understanding about detecting “red flags” of violent radicalisation (warning signs and opportunities to intervene) and about the prevention and detection mechanisms currently in place in Europe through real-life case studies (e.g. tools required to assess the existing radicalisation risks);
3. Better capacity to deal with detainees at risk of radicalisation or already radicalised by receiving training where they will gain new knowledge and tools useful for everyday challenges;
4. Increased awareness and capacity of community service providers to deal with ex-offenders deemed vulnerable to radicalisation and/or ex-radicals along their reintegration process;
5. Increased knowledge about the mentoring schemes as a tool for social support of ex-radicals or previously identified inmates vulnerable to radical messages upon release and their families;
6. Improved multi-agency cooperation and planning for release, by providing prison and probation systems with the tools that allow them to analyse the existing networks, information gathering and communication processes between different agencies (prison probation - police-intelligence services - community services) – through the establishment of a multi-agency approach and cooperation guide.