ANNEX - CASE STUDIES ON GOOD PRACTICES Temporary refraining from execution of preventive measure: If the requirements of Art 21 (1) or (2) StGB are met, the person concerned shall be placed in a forensic therapeutic centre. However, the court must examine ex officio whether it is possible to provisionally refrain from execution of preventive measure by setting conditions and ordering probation assistance. If the person concerned has already been provisionally accommodated, the court must instruct the management of the forensic therapeutic centre to review the requirements for provisional refraining. A social network conference can be organised for this purpose. II. DEVELOPMENT The steadily increasing number of people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities being subjected to preventive measures is a fundamental problem in the Austrian criminal justice system. This upward trend has been observed since the end of the 1980s and continued to intensify in the first decade of the new millennium. The reasons for this increase appear to be diverse. The main causes are not only to be found in the increasing numbers of admissions, but also in the slow releases, which consequently also prolongs the duration of deprivation of liberty.496 Therefore, there is an urgent need for the application of non-custodial measures. This has also been advocated by the Council of the European Union which recommends that Member States should increasingly allow alternatives to custodial measures. This would better prepare offenders for reintegration into society and contribute to the prevention of recidivism.497 This is exactly where the SNCs come in. The SNC is a new methodological approach of social work that goes back to the model of the "Family Group Conference" first developed in New Zealand for juvenile offenders. The model is based on the assumption that juveniles who are in a crisis phase of their lives (which manifests itself in the commitment of crimes) are themselves capable of decision-making and problem-solving. The SNC aims to involve the young person's social environment (parents, other family members, friends, neighbours, teachers, etc.) in overcoming their crisis and dealing with their conflicts, and to support 118 them in not committing (more) offences in the future. In Austria, the SNC was first introduced and launched to reduce pre-trial detention for juveniles. Based on a successful pilot project for juveniles, this system was transposed into national law and entered into force in 2016.498 After this successful introduction of the SNC´s for juvenile offenders, the Ministry of Justice commissioned the central probation service in Austria “Neustart” to test the model of a SNC in the preventive measure system, among others for detainees with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, in Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria, Upper Austria and Salzburg as of 1 April 2015. Within the framework of the pilot project "Sozialnetzkonferenzen bei Maßnahmenuntergebrachten” (“SNCs for persons subjected to preventive measure systems”) throughout a period of 16 months, 60 SNCs were assigned and 40 SNCs were carried out. The addressees were all prisons and psychiatric clinics in the aforementioned federal states. The court followed the plan of the SNC in its discretionary decision in 24 of the 36 cases and positively decided with regard to conditional suspension (“bedingte Nachsicht”), conditional release (“bedingte Entlassung”) or reduction (“Strafmilderung”) of the sentence by a SNC. Only in two of the positively decided cases did the clients breach conditions or drop out.499 A total of 36 of the 40 SNCs carried out were completed positively and participants found the project to be very positive and promising. The project was completed on 31 July 2016.500 Following the new reform, which entered into force on 1 March 2023, the SNC´s have received a legal basis for cases involving persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities.501 III. DEVELOPMENT The advantages of social net conferences are manifold. SNC’s provide persons concerned with the opportunity to actively participate in the process, as well as involve family and other relevant social contacts.502 The person concerned is present throughout the entire