Some 400 prison and community corrections professionals will assemble in Bridgetown this October for a global forum on matters relating to and challenges posed by the day-to-day management and treatment of offenders.

Hosted by the Barbados Prison Service (BPS), this International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) 11th annual general meeting and conference will be held at the south coast Hilton hotel from October 25 to 30.

The primary aim of the conference is to promote an open debate and dialogue among all professionals working in the care and management of offenders in community and custodial settings; public, private and voluntary locales, and the developed and developing worlds.

A mixture of plenary sessions and workshops will afford delegates from over 60 countries, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, opportunity to discuss issues of common interest and share best practices.

This 11th anniversary event will launch the beginning of ICPA’s second decade by exploring a theme of new horizons. Presentations will offer creative views of anticipated changes in trends, technologies, operational practices and system responses to managing diverse prisoner populations.

A broad range of papers are expected in the following areas:

*Sentencing and Criminal Justice Reforms in Managing Growing Prisoner Populations;

*Community Engagement in Prisoner Re-Entry/Reintegration;

*Corrections in the New World of Financial Meltdown: Implications and Responses;

*Prisoner Management;

*Correctional Leadership;

*Community Corrections/Probation and Parole;

*Corrections Experience in Post-Conflict Situations;

*Staff Training;

*Prisoner and Staff Safety;

*Innovative Models of Intervention.

This year’s ICPA Awards recipients are being honoured, at the conference, for outstanding progress and excellence, particularly those achievements which advance humanitarian approaches and professional corrections.

With the addition of two new ones, awards are made in the following categories:
*President’s Award,

*Offender Management and Reintegration,

*Management and Staff Training,

*Research Award,

*Community Corrections Award (new),

*Outstanding Correctional Service Employee (new),

*Outstanding Contribution to the Association.

Deadline for nominations to be considered in the 2009 ICPA Awards Programme is August 31.

Another feature is the Companion Programme offering three-day sight-seeing and cultural group activity, and participation in evening receptions of the main conference.

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