Since 2018, the EL PAcCTO Programme has participated in the Workshop on the federal prison system aimed at magistrates and representatives of the Brazilian criminal police, organised by the Centre for Judicial Studies of the Federal Justice Council (CJF).
In September of the same year, the 9th edition of the workshop was held, with the participation of the European expert Paolo Canevelli, Deputy Attorney General at the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy, who contributed to the dialogue aimed at strengthening coordination between the institutions that make up the Federal penitentiary system based on European experience and, together with the heads of the DEPEN (Penitentiary Department) and the federal states, defining the strategic axes of cooperation.
During the 10th edition of the Workshop in 2019, the coordinator of the penitentiary systems component, Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini, attended and presented the regulations and implementation modalities of specific penitentiary circuits for imprisoned people convicted of mafia or criminal organisation offences, contributing to the dialogue to strengthen coordination between the institutions that make up the federal prison system. In addition, the occasion was used to define, along with those in charge of DEPEN, and the federal states, the strategic axes and specific activities in which the EL PAcCTO Programme could provide support in 2020 in Brazil.
In September 2020, the Federal Justice Council drew up its programming in a shorter manner, due to the pandemic, and invited the EL PAcCTO programme to edit a video in which a specialist with knowledge of the European maximum security prison system participated as a lecturer at the “Distance Learning Course on the Federal Penitentiary System”. The magistrate of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, Barbara Sargenti, made a video in which the critical issues are exposed and suggestions are made for the adoption of the same practices in Brazil. The Programme carried out the production, completion and post-production in order to use it in the virtual training platform to be activated within the framework of the Network of Penitentiary Academies.
In the 12th edition of the Workshop on the federal prison system that was held on 23 September of this year, the coordinator of the penitentiary component, Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini, gave a class on the axes of cooperation between the prison component of the Programme and Brazil, as well as the operation of maximum security in Italy.
Undoubtedly, the cooperation between the Federal Justice Council (CJF) and EL PAcCTO has contributed to creating a favourable climate for the promotion and successive approval of profound reforms in the field of the struggle against organised crime in Brazil, such as the constitutional amendment that led to the introduction of the Criminal Police in Brazil.