The Working
Group on Internal Security is a new NISPAcee Working Group, which objectives
are:
- to present theory-based
country case-studies in working group following detailed research program
and summarizing them into comparative studies;
- to provide common
ground for comparative research, joint research programs and international
cooperation on training and exchange of experience between practitioners
and researcher of prison, police and other areas on internal security.
BACKGROUND
At the
beginning of 1990-ies in many Central and Eastern European countries policing
(often called also "militia"), implementation of imprisonment and
other spheres of internal security were military or paramilitary organizations
with little transparency and accountability, with highly horizontal, byrocratic,
and authorial organization and management culture, with poorly educated and
also poorly paid stuff, and high risk of breaching of human rights (in the
sense of the Western Europe has understood the concept of human rights, at
least) and little legal guaranties for the person they approached. During last
two decades in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe arrangement of
these state functions has been de-militarized, often administration of prison
and some functions of police or prosecution have been moved from dominion of
ministry of internal affairs to dominion of ministry of justice. The set of
legislation in these areas has gone through tremendous changes and developments,
introducing new legal guaranties for people and making agencies and officers
more accountable for their decisions and activities. There is usually
remarkable shift towards openness and transparency in these organizations
(introduction of visiting boards, legal ombudsman and other control bodies,
allowing CPT visits, etc) and in many cases the organizational culture and
management has become less formal and authorial. For a great share these
changes have been introduced due to external influence (preparation for joining
EU, membership in UN, reports of OECD, etc), but there are also internal
factors (use of ICT, improvement of physical conditions (buildings and
erections, vehicles, equipment), change in social values, economic conditions,
general constitutional and legal framework, etc) having impact on those
changes. The development of policing and implementation of imprisonment has
been very different in countries of Central and Easter Europe, even if there
have been similar conditions and developments in other areas of government.
CALL FOR
PAPERS
The first
problem addressed by the working group is lack of information about
arrangement, organization, institutions and activities of police, prisons and
other agencies of internal security. The best database on prisons has collected
by the International Centre for Prison Studies of University of Essex in United
Kingdom (http://www.prisonstudies.org/),
but little country-studies have been carried out among countries of Central and
Eastern Europe. Also some quality research has been carried out by The European
Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations
(HEUNI; http://www.heuni.fi/).
The institute
has published three high quality researches on the topic: Roy Walmsley (2003)
Further Developments in the Prison Systems of Central and Eastern Europe -
Achievements, problems and objectives. Helsinki: HEUNI 2003. HEUNI Publication No. 41, Roy Walmsley (1996) Prison Systems in Central and Eastern Europe -
Progress, problems and the international standards. Helsinki: HEUNI 1996, and Roy
Walmsley (1995) Developments in the Prison Systems of Central and Eastern
Europe Helsinki: HEUNI 1995, HEUNI Paper No. 4. Despite to these publications,
there is relatively little research done at the field of administration of
internal security.
Scholars and
practitioners who are active in area of public administration, public law or
internal security and who are interested in research and study of agencies and policies
of internal security are invited to submit papers for the Working Group on Administration
and Management of Internal Security Agencies on the following topics:
- Arrangement and organization. In this session
papers about overall structure and arrangement of internal safety and
security, organization, culture and management of agencies of internal
security, financing of agencies of internal security, cooperation and
relations between agencies;
- Personnel standing and management. In this session
papers about personnel management, leadership, salaries and social
security, training and education and other issues related to personnel
management of agencies are expected.;
- Policies and strategic planning. In this session
papers about policies, implementation of policies and strategies of
internal security are expected. This session also hosts papers on general
problems, statistics and public self-organization of internal security
(such as crime rate, incarceration rate, statistics of imprisonment etc or
theoretical or philosophical approaches to solving problems of crime and
public order);
- Implementation and law. In this session papers on legislation on
internal security (laws, regulations, bylaws etc.) and court practice, on
implementation studies, law and economic, and studies on institutional
theory are expected. This session also hosts papers on corruption and
other misuse of public power in agencies and bodies of internal security.
The paper
selection will be based on submitted abstracts, which have to clearly define
objectives and research questions (i.e. what the researcher wishes to find) and
to carefully describe the research design and methods (i.e. what the researcher
will actually do). The papers should demonstrate a very good knowledge of related
literature in both the local language and in English.