BASELINE FOR SUCCESSFUL REHABILITATION PROMISING PRACTICE: Personal officers in Sweden In Sweden, every prisoner has a personal officer assigned to them. This officer is a designated member of staff who the prisoner should turn to with any requests and problems about their prison sentence. The personal officer is aware of the prisoner’s history and their current situation, and is responsible for supporting the prisoner in positive social endeavours. The professional relationship between personal officer and prisoner helps the efficient handling of prisoner requests and is central to enhancing and supporting positive social behaviours. CONTEXT: Dynamic security approaches A positive climate that encourages cooperation among prisoners and between prisoners and staff can help to improve safety and security in prisons and contributes to effective rehabilitation and preparation for release. Dynamic security approaches involve proactive and frequent interaction between prison staff and prisoners. ‘Dynamic security means that basic grade prison staff are trained and encouraged to develop good personal relationships with prisoners, to know and understand them as individuals, to provide sympathetic help with personal problems and to engage in meaningful dialogues with them. Prisoners have their most frequent and continuing contacts with the basic grade staff. The nature of their daily interactions with this grade of staff greatly influences their behaviour and attitudes. Positive interactions tend to reduce destructive behaviour and attitudes and facilitate constructive work with prisoners.’58 PROMISING PRACTICE: Model prison project in Thailand In 2015, the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), in cooperation with the country’s Department of Corrections, established a country-wide initiative in Thailand called the Model Prison Project. This initiative aims to enhance prison staff’s understanding of international human rights standards and encourages prison management to carry out their policies and practices in line with the Bangkok Rules. Prisons around the country are invited to join the project. They are provided with technical assistance and then assessed against specific criteria developed by the TIJ and the Department of Corrections and based on Penal Reform International’s (PRI) Index of Implementation on the Bangkok Rules.59 The status of Model Prison is awarded to prisons that have demonstrated that they have successfully adopted a gender perspective. healthcare, safety and security measures, contact with the outside world and pre-release measures. The prisons are also assessed on the way they manage foreign national prisoners, those from minority and Indigenous groups, pre-trial detainees, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and mothers with children living with them in prison.60 The TIJ provides direct support to prisons participating in the programme. This includes training on the management of women prisoners, advisory input and support from subject specialists, specific skills building for correctional staff, and opportunities to network with others working in the field of corrections. There are currently 12 prisons in Thailand with the status of Model Prison – demonstrating that implementation of There are nine sets of criteria that the prisons provisions of the Bangkok Rules is possible, are assessed against for Model Prison status. despite common constraints such as These include standards of hygiene and overcrowding and limited financial resources. Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners | 23