Abilis Solutions attended the 1st ICPA – International Correctional Research Symposium on March 27-29, 2017 in Ghent, Belgium. This two-day symposium aimed to improve the ways research is conducted in corrections, and focused on each stage of harnessing data at local, national and international levels. It provided a forum to discuss current research undertaken within correctional services, external agencies and universities, and to explore ways to enhance these processes. Having an accurate and understandable picture of an issue within corrections is crucial for making decisions regarding how offenders are managed in both the institutional and community context.

The conference attracted over 120 participants representing criminal justice researchers from academic institutions, research managers from public sector prisons and correctional services, NGO representatives, data analysts and software specialists. The attendees were able to discuss, learn and share insights from many different correctional research areas including:

• The Challenges of Doing Research in Corrections
• Enhancing Comparability and Understanding – parallel workshops on
  • comparative research, research used to promote standards and reform, and the management of research;
  • healthcare, applications of probation and community research, and offender-focused research: applications of technology;
  • cross-jurisdictional comparative research, rehabilitation research, offender-focused research: obtaining data from prison populations;
  • research on: education in prisons, healthcare and offender-focused gender specific

• Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches in Measuring Correctional Performance
• Research on Imprisonment
• Research in Improving Public Sector Services
• The Future of Correctional Research

Eric Le Goff, President and CEO of Abilis-Solutions presented a paper on the topic of “The Value of a Corrections Information Ecosystem to Support Stakeholder Needs”. He noted that an integrated, centralized OMS is the key step toward information integrity and availability, and advocated the need of a European standard for corrections data in order to provide benefits and efficiency for all agencies, and improved data value for all stakeholders.