Margineni Prison

The Mărgineni Penitentiary is located in South East of Romania - Dâmboviţa County, being a public institution of national interest, with legal personality, which ensures the execution of custodial sentences and the measure of preventive arrest, ensuring the recuperative intervention, under conditions guaranteeing respect for human dignity. It also facilitates the reintegration of detainees into society and contributes to increasing community safety, maintaining public order and national security. The professional activity of the personnel is carried out in the interest of the community and of the prisoners, within the limits of the competences established by law and on the basis of the indicators established by the General Director of the National Administration of Penitentiaries. The staff takes care not only of learning and lifelong education of prisoners but also of the development of their professional careers by attending courses organized by the National Administration of Penitentiarys and the Ministry of Justice. Besides the custody function, the Mărgineni Penitentiary also fulfills the educational function. For this purpose, at the level of the Mărgineni Penitentiary, the Social Reintegration Sector is made up of two services: the Education Service and the Psychosocial Assistance Service. This sector is headed by a Deputy Director and two Heads of Service. The activity is carried out at the level of the Education Service of educators and at the level of the Psychosocial Assistance Service by social workers and psychologists. The overall objective taken into account in these sectors was to provide prisoners a human and organizational climate with educational potential, to reduce their psychological and social vulnerability, and to facilitate their return to the family and community. At present, the Mărgineni Penitentiary has over 550 detainees in custody, on different detention regimes (maximum security regime, closed regime, open regime) and also has a regional coordination role at the prisons level in the South Muntenia region. During the execution of custodial sentences, detainees have the role of adults in an adult education institution, and the staff perform their educational function on them, ensuring the access of the prisoners to programs and activities adapted to the identified needs, in accordance with the objectives specific sectors, respectively the compensation of identified needs and risks from the perspective of criminal behavior. Therefore, we can say that penitentiary workers interacting with detainees are their educators / trainers / mentors. Over the years, through the National Administration of Penitentiaries, various collaboration partnerships have also been established with national / international organizations / institutions, which have been based on the accumulation of new knowledge and exchange of experience. We appreciate that the results achieved within the partnerships can be notable, ensuring, on the one hand, the collaboration between the institutions for the training of the personnel and the support of the recuperatory approach addressed to the prisoners, and, on the other hand, the promotion of a positive image of the penitentiary in the community. In this respect, we consider it extremely important to continue working with various partners involved in similar activities and to identify new opportunities for collaboration in strategic projects, with a focus on training, innovation and exchange of good practice.