Kick-Off – Prevention and deradicalisation in the prison and probation services
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Germany
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Name
Kick-Off – Prevention and deradicalisation in the prison and probation services |
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Target audience
Radicalised individuals in the prison and probation services in Schleswig-Holstein |
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Objectives
Disengagement and distancing work |
Description
“Kick-off” is a pilot project for prevention and deradicalisation in the prison and probation services in Schleswig-Holstein, active since July 2017 and funded by the “Demokratie leben!” (live democracy) federal funding programme with co-financing from the Ministry of Justice in Schleswig-Holstein. Kick-off is run by the Turkish community in Schleswig-Holstein (TGS-H) together with the Kiel anti-violence and social training organisation (KAST), thus covering both the areas of Islamism and right-wing extremism.
The aim of the project is to strengthen at-risk individuals from extremist ideas, give staff more confidence to take action and initiate and support distancing processes for radicalised individuals. By using innovative methods which are constantly analysed and adjusted accordingly the pilot project hopes to obtain new knowledge and approaches for prevention work and transfer the project into regular structures once developed further.
Kick-off works across several pillars and is thus aimed at different target groups:
1) The first pillar of democracy lessons in youth prisons is for the most part a preventive intervention and enables early immunisation against extremist ideas. The lessons are run jointly by the staff of TGS-H and KAST and are not restricted to one specific strand;
2) The second pillar of staff training in the criminal justice system is to give staff confidence in their actions by strengthening their intercultural skills, providing them with information about ideologies and radicalisation processes and enabling them to detect relevant indicators and support the reversal of radicalisation processes with their actions. There will be separate training sessions for each of the areas of Islamism (TGS-H) and right-wing extremism (KAST). For Islamism the sessions will be run jointly with PROvention, the prevention and support office for religiously motivated extremism, another project run by TGS-H;
3) The discussion groups of the third pillar aim to stimulate critical thinking through professionally (and – in the area of religiously motivated extremism – theologically) led discussions in diverse groups with different opinions and levels of radicalisation, thus strengthening the resilience to simple truths and also interrupting radicalisation and initiating distancing processes. Here too TGS-H and KAST will lead discussion groups with different areas of focus;
4) The fourth pillar concentrates on intensive individual support for individuals who have already become radicalised using a systemic approach. The idea here is to initiate distancing processes and accompany them in the long term. In the area of Islamism support workers can also make use of their theological knowledge in a systemic approach in order to trigger the deconstruction of the clients’ ingrained theological legitimation for their own actions;
The fifth and sixth pillars focus on interlinking with activities already taking place and the continued support after release in the form of individual mentoring.
[1] KAST GbR and Türkische Gemeinde in Schleswig-Holstein e.V
“Kick-off” is a pilot project for prevention and deradicalisation in the prison and probation services in Schleswig-Holstein, active since July 2017 and funded by the “Demokratie leben!” (live democracy) federal funding programme with co-financing from the Ministry of Justice in Schleswig-Holstein. Kick-off is run by the Turkish community in Schleswig-Holstein (TGS-H) together with the Kiel anti-violence and social training organisation (KAST), thus covering both the areas of Islamism and right-wing extremism.
The aim of the project is to strengthen at-risk individuals from extremist ideas, give staff more confidence to take action and initiate and support distancing processes for radicalised individuals. By using innovative methods which are constantly analysed and adjusted accordingly the pilot project hopes to obtain new knowledge and approaches for prevention work and transfer the project into regular structures once developed further.
Kick-off works across several pillars and is thus aimed at different target groups:
1) The first pillar of democracy lessons in youth prisons is for the most part a preventive intervention and enables early immunisation against extremist ideas. The lessons are run jointly by the staff of TGS-H and KAST and are not restricted to one specific strand;
2) The second pillar of staff training in the criminal justice system is to give staff confidence in their actions by strengthening their intercultural skills, providing them with information about ideologies and radicalisation processes and enabling them to detect relevant indicators and support the reversal of radicalisation processes with their actions. There will be separate training sessions for each of the areas of Islamism (TGS-H) and right-wing extremism (KAST). For Islamism the sessions will be run jointly with PROvention, the prevention and support office for religiously motivated extremism, another project run by TGS-H;
3) The discussion groups of the third pillar aim to stimulate critical thinking through professionally (and – in the area of religiously motivated extremism – theologically) led discussions in diverse groups with different opinions and levels of radicalisation, thus strengthening the resilience to simple truths and also interrupting radicalisation and initiating distancing processes. Here too TGS-H and KAST will lead discussion groups with different areas of focus;
4) The fourth pillar concentrates on intensive individual support for individuals who have already become radicalised using a systemic approach. The idea here is to initiate distancing processes and accompany them in the long term. In the area of Islamism support workers can also make use of their theological knowledge in a systemic approach in order to trigger the deconstruction of the clients’ ingrained theological legitimation for their own actions;
The fifth and sixth pillars focus on interlinking with activities already taking place and the continued support after release in the form of individual mentoring.
[1] KAST GbR and Türkische Gemeinde in Schleswig-Holstein e.V