CHAIR’S SUMMARYENHANCING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO REDUCE REOFFENDING AND PROMOTEINCLUSIVE SOCIETIESTokyo, Japan
18 – 20 October 2022

OPENING CEREMONY
1.

Mr. MORINAGA Taro, Director of the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Preventionof Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), delivered opening remarks and welcomed theparticipants to the meeting. The fourteen experts from the field of crime prevention and criminal justiceand twelve UNAFEI faculty members who participated in the meeting are listed in Annex 1.

2.

The discussion was chaired by Ms. IRIE Junko, Deputy Director of UNAFEI. Recalling the theme ofthe event – “Enhancing Technical Assistance to Reduce Reoffending and Promote an Inclusive Society”– the Chair elaborated the purpose of the meeting: to identify promising practices to reduce reoffending,
implementation challenges in developing countries, and the role of technical assistance in overcoming
the challenges. Details of the specific programmes and technical assistance projects to reduce
reoffending that were presented during the discussion session are available in Annex 2.

COUNTRY PRESENTATIONS
3.

The country presentations were designed to illustrate some of the ways in which criminal justice systems
around the world are pursuing efforts to prevent crime and promote reintegration by reducing
reoffending. The presentations identified numerous challenges to the implementation of effective
measures in developing countries. Unsurprisingly, prison overcrowding, which was noted to haveresulted largely from overreliance on custodial sentences and prolonged pretrial detention, undermines
rehabilitative prison environments. The ability of criminal justice systems to respond to this issue islimited by endemic problems such as the lack of financial resources, lack of equipment and facilities,
insufficient staff and inadequate training. These challenges are exacerbated by the lack of administrative
structures to handle community release schemes.

4.

Prison environments remain a significant obstacle to the success of – and even the ability to provide –prison-based rehabilitation programmes. In Cambodia, the underdeveloped state of prison facilities puts
needed programmes on hold, resulting in the promotion primarily of agricultural programmes, which
does not provide offenders with marketable skills. In Samoa, prisons are managed by police officers,which creates clear conflicts of interest and can undermine the rehabilitative purpose of imprisonment,
while the prevalence of organized crime within prisons undermines rehabilitation efforts in Brazil.
Kenya reported a lack of training and manuals on rehabilitative practices, which is an issue faced bymany developing countries. Efforts to expand non-custodial measures and community support are often
frustrated by lack of public awareness and understanding of the purpose of community corrections.
Most countries reported issues with the stigmatization of offenders by the community and weak politicalsupport for or prioritization of offender rehabilitation, and strong cultural traditions and attitudes against
offenders were reported in Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Samoa. The absence of disaggregated data andreliable statistics is an issue that impacts all aspects of the criminal justice system in developing
countries. Data on arrests, imprisonment and reoffending can help policymakers and practitioners
throughout the system make better rehabilitative decisions.
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5.

Despite these significant challenges, the country presentations identified promising practices aimed at
reducing reoffending. Timor-Leste has, on its own initiative and with the support of technical assistanceproviders, developed measures for reducing reoffending that include assessment and evaluation
procedures, a court-supervised release process, and family reintegration strategies. Samoa has had
success with art and painting programmes, which are low cost, easy to implement and can result inincome to the offender and the correctional institution through revenue sharing upon the sale of theartwork. Also in Samoa, the Graffiti Project, conducted in partnership with the private sector, wasreported as effective to make youth realize the difficulty of removing graffiti from buildings andpreventing the practice of graffiti generally. Finally, although underutilized, Samoa reported that its
indigenous infrastructure provides opportunities for greater partnership in reducing reoffending throughcommunity-based measures. In Cambodia, prison-based vocational training programmes andsubsequent employment were identified as factors that could significantly reduce reoffending. In Kenya,
the probation service has succeeded in obtaining greater resources by demonstrating its value to key
criminal justice stakeholders (particularly judges) in several ways. Social inquiry reports are used toassess offenders prior to the imposition of a sentence, and informal social control (family andcommunity) and a multidimensional, multi-stakeholder approach is recognized as key to reducing
reoffending, as demonstrated by Kenya’s use of Community Probation Volunteers. Kenya’s experience
also demonstrated the important role of probation in handling the emergency release of prisoners during
the Covid-19 pandemic. As Brazil faces issues of overcrowding, non-prosecution agreements are used
as a measure to avoid incarceration, and “semi-open” prison regimes are used to facilitate rehabilitationby promoting work release so that offenders can find employment in society.

DISCUSSION SESSION
Session 1: Use of non-custodial measures to prevent reoffending
6. While prison overcrowding can impact countries at any stage of development, the impact on developing
countries is particularly severe. It was noted that non-custodial measures are necessary to decongest
prisons, and they have the added benefit of being more effective at rehabilitating most offenders andmaintaining family ties. The discussion identified challenges that many countries face in implementing
such measures: (i) lack of an appropriate legal framework (inadequate range of non-custodial sentences
and measures, lack of probation and parole systems, and the absence of gender-responsive measures aswell as measures that address special needs, such as drug use disorders and mental health needs); (ii)insufficient development of sentencing guidelines that would be needed to avoid overreliance on
custodial sentences by courts; (iii) low levels of awareness and understanding among other key
stakeholders, including the police, prosecutors, correctional authorities, policymakers and the generalpublic; (iv) limited infrastructure, capacity and resources; (v) insufficient cooperation between therelevant authorities and with the private sector and representatives of the community; and (vi)insufficient research on the effectiveness of different sentences and measures.
7.

Given the relative insufficiency of legal frameworks and low awareness, technical assistance projects
may require extensive training materials and workshops, and the translation of materials into local
languages. Other valuable resources may include the creation or revision of forms to help social workers
and judges assess risk and analyse treatment options for offenders who would benefit from noncustodial sanctions or measures. Electronic monitoring was also discussed as a measure to facilitatecommunity-based treatment, and it was reported that it could contribute to reducing reoffending,provided that it is used, where appropriate, in conjunction with psychosocial and other forms of tailoredsupport, and that the risk of net-widening is taken into consideration. The difficulty of assessing theeffectiveness of these approaches was discussed, and it was suggested that evidence of effectiveness isimportant because of the scepticism that some justice systems or policymakers have toward noncustodial measures due to the perception that they lack a deterrent effect.

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8.

9.

Session 2: Rehabilitation in the custodial environment
The projects and practices presented during the session demonstrated the critical importance oftechnical assistance projects in addressing and making meaningful improvement to custodial
environments in developing countries. Staff training on the implementation of the Nelson Mandela
Rules, the Bangkok Rules and other relevant standards and norms is an important first step not only toensure that personnel understand and respect the relevant human rights standards but also to identify
performance gaps and urgent priorities. In addition to training, many of the projects presented focusedon introducing offender assessment and classification tools in order to enhance prison safety andsecurity and to enhance the ability of correctional officials to provide individualized treatment.
Meaningful prison work programmes were also discussed as a means to support social reintegration of
offenders by providing offenders with vocational skills and increase their employability upon release.
In a developed country, offenders who worked in the prison industry programme are reported as being
only one third as likely to reoffend. While these programmes have great potential in developing
countries, it was observed that the creation of a rehabilitative environment in line with the Nelson
Mandela Rules, the Bangkok Rules and other relevant United Nations standards and norms is aprecondition to success.
Session 3: Effective supervision and support of offenders in the community
The discussion focused on the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships to ensure effective support
for offenders in the community. The social partnership model was introduced as a means to organize
the private sector to provide offenders with knowledge, resources and opportunities necessary to
succeed in society, and the offenders who benefited from these partnerships often developed pride in
their vocational accomplishments and their successful rehabilitation. The importance of family contact
and continued engagement in society during incarceration was also stressed as a means to facilitate
reintegration upon release, but practices should be gender-responsive and provide alternative solutions,such as halfway houses, when family contact is not practical or is inappropriate. To promote a multistakeholder, multidisciplinary approach to offender rehabilitation and reintegration, national actionplans and requiring knowledge of offender rehabilitation for the certification of certain professionals,
such as social workers and psychologists, can be considered. Additionally, peer support groups werediscussed as an effective measure to maintain offender motivation and progress toward rehabilitation
while reintegrating into society.
Session 4: Measuring the impact of strategies to reduce reoffending

10. The presentations and interventions introduced sophisticated and innovative approaches to measuring

the impact of strategies to reduce reoffending, such as demonstrating programme accountability andeffectiveness through cost-benefit analysis. Another approach involved the integration of data collection
systems and the use of statistical models for programme evaluation. As many developing countries lackreliable data, technical assistance to support data collection and the compilation of crime statistics can
add sustained value to a criminal justice system. On the issue of defining “reoffending”, some
scepticism was expressed regarding the adoption of a single metric or indicator, and it was suggested
that technical assistance focus on encouraging the adoption of clear definitions, which may vary
somewhat in each country and each individual project, and providing guidance on the use of accurate
terminology. It was also stated that issuing identity documents is a problem in many developing
countries, leading to the problem of identification of individuals and tracking them through the justicesystem. In addition to the importance of quantitative data, it was also observed that complementary
qualitative data, whether through clinical practice or in the form of personal stories of offenders, canhelp build a narrative to influence policymakers and the media on the value of successful rehabilitation
and reintegration strategies.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
11. Participants shared the following ideas on enhancing technical assistance for developing countries tosupport their efforts to reduce reoffending:(a) Use of non-custodial measures to prevent reoffending(i)

Provide assistance through a step-by-step approach that targets the availability andquality of non-custodial measures and the ability to apply them effectively. Thisapproach may require detailed review of legislation and sentencing policies (e.g.,sentencing and prosecutorial guidelines) to ensure that non-custodial measures areavailable, are gender responsive and can be properly applied, as well as review ofsubstantive criminal law to ensure that outdated penal offences and punishments arerepealed and that sanctions, including non-custodial measures and custodial sentences,are proportionate to the offence;(ii)

Provide key stakeholder groups (such as law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges,
probation officers, lawyers, victims, offenders, social services and non-governmentalorganizations, community volunteers) with information and training on the functions
and use of non-custodial measures, for example, through the preparation of handbooks,
toolkits and other practical resources;(iii)

Promote closer cooperation among criminal justice decision makers andrepresentatives of community-based-services agencies in order to identify and respondto the needs of offenders, in particular members of vulnerable populations, and promoteutilization of alternative and restorative justice processes, including customary justicemechanisms and indigenous infrastructure, in line with the domestic legal system andrelevant international standards and norms;(iv)

Promote the implementation of non-custodial measures that are based on individualized
assessments, which may include psychosocial and other tailored support and protocols
for referral from criminal justice agencies to the respective health, mental health, social
welfare or other agencies.

(b) Rehabilitation in the custodial environment(i)

Focus on raising prison conditions and substantial compliance with the Nelson
Mandela Rules, the Bangkok Rules and other relevant United Nations standards andnorms as a basis for effective treatment programmes, based on the understanding thatthe prison environment directly impacts inmates’ prospects of rehabilitation andreintegration;(ii)

Provide training on the Nelson Mandela Rules, the Bangkok Rules and other relevant
United Nations standards and norms;(iii)

Introduce offender assessment and classification tools to enhance prison safety andsecurity and enable the provision of individually tailored treatment programmes;(iv)

Facilitate contact with family and friends and supplement visitation with use oftechnology and other means insofar as it is conducive to maintaining ties;(v)

Facilitate enhanced access to treatment and other support services;
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(vi)

Develop and promote vocational-training and life-skills-development programmes thatare not guided solely by existing gender stereotypes and without undue influence fromprivate actors, including through the establishment of prison industry schemes and in
partnership with the community, which may include the private sector;(vii)

Promote inter-agency and multi-stakeholder cooperation to ensure the continuity ofcare as the offender moves from the custodial to the community setting.

(c) Effective supervision and support of offenders in the community(i)

Promote partnership with the private sector to create employment opportunities foroffenders, to provide entrepreneurship training and small business guidance to enableoffenders to start their own businesses, and to expand access to capital and otherresources for offender rehabilitation and reintegration;(ii)

Raise public awareness and enhance engagement of stakeholders, including the private
sector, by publicizing ex-offenders' positive experiences of rehabilitation throughemployment and entrepreneurship, and involve ex-offenders as peer counsellors androle models in rehabilitation and reintegration programmes;(iii)

Support community corrections agencies in identifying new community partnerships
including with universities and other educational institutions, social welfareorganizations and volunteers, and involving them in offender rehabilitation andreintegration;(iv)

Assist countries with the establishment of post-release support programmes andfacilities, such as halfway houses, aftercare treatment centres, case management
services, employment and educational programmes, etc., in line with the Tokyo Rules;(v)

Encourage partnerships with peer support groups with the aim of ensuring ongoing
community support beyond the term of the criminal justice intervention.

(d) Measuring the impact of strategies to reduce reoffending(i)

Clearly define “reoffending” and similar terms within the context of specific studies,
reports and technical assistance projects;(ii)

Provide sustainable, progressive (step-by-step) assistance to countries in theirdevelopment of data collection systems and processes for the analysis and publicationof statistics in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice;(iii)

Incorporate data collection and analysis with the implementation of evidence-based
technical assistance projects;(iv)

Promote quantitative approaches to measure the effectiveness of strategies to reduce
reoffending, improve rehabilitation programmes and demonstrate their impact –reliable data can convince politicians and the public of the positive impact of a project
as well as enhance motivation of frontline officers to pursue and expand effective
practices;(v)

At the same time, promote qualitative approaches to effectiveness by, for example,
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collecting stories of success and challenges – both by and about offenders – andimplementing a professional media strategy to raise public awareness andunderstanding.
(e) Measures to enhance collaboration and information-sharing among technical assistanceproviders(i)

The PNI should, in close cooperation with the UNODC, facilitate information sharing
on promising technical assistance projects and practices in the field of crime prevention
and criminal justice through regular in-person meetings and other forums;(ii)

Governments, the private sector and other donors are encouraged to provide adequate
financial and other resources to ensure the ability of technical assistance providers toengage in such collaboration and information-sharing forums.

CLOSING OF THE SESSION
12. Prior to adjournment, the PNI experts collectively expressed thanks to UNAFEI for organizing theevent and for arranging an online lecture from the Tokyo Public Prosecutors’ Office and study
visits to the Supreme Court of Japan, including a courtesy call on Justice Toru Sakai, the Higashi
Nihon (East Japan) Adult Medical Corrections Center and Shisui-en Halfway House, which
enriched the meeting and improved their understanding of the Japanese criminal justice system andpractices to reduce reoffending.
20 OCTOBER 2022
TOKYO, JAPAN6

ANNEX 1
PARTICIPANT LIST
（In-person participants）
1. Ms. Jee Aei LEE, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC)
2. Ms. Fumiko AKASHI, Consultant, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
3. Mr. Leif VILLADSEN, Deputy Director, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice ResearchInstitute (UNICRI)
4. Mr. Andrew Karokora MUNANURA, Legal and Training Consultant, United Nations African
Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI)
5. Mr. Douglas DURAN CHAVARRIA, Director, United Nations Latin American Institute for thePrevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD)
6. Dr. Vincent Cheng YANG, Senior Associate, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform &Criminal Justice Policy (ICCLR)
7. Mr. Josh OUNSTED, Thematic Leader, Access to Justice, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human
Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI)
8. Dr. Phiset SA-ARDYEN, Executive Director, Thailand Institute of Justice（TIJ）
9. Ms. Chontit CHUENURAH, Director of Office for the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders,Thailand Institute of Justice（TIJ）（In-person observers）
1. Dr. Matti Tapani JOUTSEN, Special Advisor, Thailand Institute of Justice（TIJ）
2. Mr. Clarence Joseph Thomsen NELSON, Justice, Supreme Court of Samoa
3. Mr. Severino Hunt GAÑA Jr., International Director, Asia Crime Prevention Foundation (ACPF)(Online participants)
1. Ms. Marcella CHAN, Director of Programs, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform &Criminal Justice Policy (ICCLR)
2. Dr. Mana YAMAMOTO, Research Expert, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice
Research Institute (UNICRI)（UNAFEI Faculty）
1. Mr. MORINAGA Taro, Director
2. Ms. IRIE Junko, Deputy Director
3. Ms. KIDA Makiko, Professor
4. Ms. TAKAI Ayaka, Professor
5. Mr. YAMANA Rompei, Professor
76. Mr. KUBO Hiroshi, Professor
7. Mr. OKUDA Yoshinori, Professor
8. Mr. NAKAYAMA Noboru, Professor
9. Ms. MIYAGAWA Tsubura, Professor
10. Mr. OTSUKA Takeaki, Professor
11. Ms. TANAKA Mii, Professor
12. Mr. Tom SCHMID, Linguistic Adviser

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ANNEX 2
REDUCING REOFFENDING: PROMISING PRACTICES AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
PROJECTS

Non-custodial Measures
With the objective of promoting the effective use of non-custodial measures, UNODC’s project in Sri
Lanka undertook a detailed assessment, organized a series of webinars with national stakeholders,convened a national forum for sharing recommendations and assisted in the formulation of a national
strategic plan. To increase the capacity of criminal justice actors, webinars and capacity-building
workshops were conducted in each of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka to reach as many practitioners as
possible nationwide. UNODC also endeavoured to raise awareness on the rationale and benefits of using
non-custodial measures through development of a handbook on community-based correction procedure,
assistance with the offender management system and developing a training module on custodial
measures for judges. To maximize the use and reference of its tools, UNODC translated its tools into
local languages wherever possible.
TIJ has been working to promote the implementation of the Bangkok Rules by working on gendersensitive solutions, including preparation, together with the UNODC, of a Toolkit on GenderResponsive Non-Custodial Measures. The Toolkit was the product of an expert meeting in Bangkok
and aims to ensure gender equality in the use and application of non-custodial measures, addressing thenegative impact of incarceration on women convicted of minor crimes. The Toolkit draws on the Tokyo
Rules and the Bangkok Rules to offer non-custodial sentencing options for countries seeking to
implement gender-responsive policies. To promote and disseminate the Toolkit, it was translated into
Thai, and a workshop was held to promote it.
ILANUD has designed a matrix of risk and protection factors aimed at building restorative plans injuvenile justice processes. The matrix has been used by the psychosocial teams of the Costa Rican
judiciary to assist judges and social workers to gather and analyse treatment options for juveniles. The
matrix includes 13 protection factors and 24 risk factors, such as education, work, socioeconomic andfamily factors, and relationships. Importantly, the tool does not stigmatize the juvenile and is used to
identify positive treatment opportunities. ILANUD introduced the study in Argentina which
demonstrated the impact of electronic monitoring in conjunction with psychosocial support on the
reduction of recidivism compared to imprisonment. It compared the re-arrest rates of two groups ofsimilar population based on factors including the seriousness of the crime: the first group is made up ofindividuals whose last period under supervision was spent under electronic monitoring, and the otherone spent their last period under supervision in prison. The result showed that the group released onelectronic monitoring experienced reduced re-arrest rates of between 11 and 16 percentage points, orapproximately half the baseline recidivism rate.
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:28548029

Rehabilitative Custodial Environments
UNODC is engaged in a three-year technical assistance project in Ghana to strengthen the complianceof the Ghana Prisons Service with the Nelson Mandela Rules. The project’s main goals are: (i) toimprove the most urgent prison conditions, (ii) to implement a classification tool and (iii) to implement
rehabilitation programmes for social reintegration. In-person training on the Nelson Mandela Rules istargeting 1,000 out of Ghana’s approximately 9,000 prison officers, complemented by UNODC’s elearning course on the Rules. Prison conditions are being improved by prioritizing urgent needs such asaccess to health care and other basic services, and a new classification tool aims at enhancing prisoners’
rehabilitation and prison security and safety procedures. To enhance rehabilitation, the project isfocusing on improving prisoners’ contact with the outside world and providing education programmes
and vocational training, psychosocial support and post-release social reintegration measures.
9Legislative assistance to update and establish laws on prison management and community service andparole regulations was highlighted as an important measure for the sustainability of the improvements
made during the project.
ICCLR introduced CORCAN – Canada’s prison industry programme through which inmates
manufacture goods (furniture, office supplies, etc.) and provide services (laundry, farming, etc.). The
programme is a fundamental component of the offender rehabilitation scheme by helping incarcerated
offenders gain work experience, earn money, learn vocational skills and earn trade certificates.
Involvement in CORCAN increases employability after release, and those who worked for CORCAN
are only one third as likely to reoffend. It was noted that from 2017 to 2018, inmates earned 14,100
vocational certificates; 61 per cent of offenders employed with CORCAN are granted day parole; and58 per cent of offenders who obtained a trade certification found community employment in their trade.
The overall results were regarded as positive.
UNICRI has broad experience introducing prison-based assessment tools – coupled with training on
interviewing techniques – to countries seeking to enhance rehabilitative environments in prison, andthese tools have been applied to the assessment of violent extremist offenders. UNICRI’s assistance toMali helped improve rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremist offenders in and after
detention, and prison-based assessment was complemented by a programme outside prison to promote
alternatives to violence. The programme also supported prison management by delivering capacitybuilding, gap analysis and development of a Risk Assessment Tool to determine the level ofradicalization leading to violence, and by training prison staff to use the tool. UNICRI is developing
plans to provide assistance to Moldova to strengthen the inter-agency coordination mechanism to ensure
seamless transition from prison to the community, and assistance to the Central African Republic tointroduce an offender classification system and training to help correctional officials identify theindividualized needs of each detainee. UNICRI is also planning to use artificial intelligence and related
technologies to facilitate the provision of services, including human-centred rehabilitation.
Effective supervision and support of offenders in the community
ILANUD has provided legal technical assistance to El Salvador in conjunction with the UNDP to revise
the legal framework to improve possibilities for social reintegration, mainly of individuals affiliatedwith gangs, and to draft a restorative justice law. ILANUD also supported the adoption of regulations
to facilitate the expungement of criminal records in Costa Rica. By expunging criminal records forminor crimes (up to a three-year sentence) immediately upon completion of the sentence, the measure
is intended to increase the employability of offenders. For more serious crimes, wait periods for
expungement increase from 1 to 3 to 10 years. Previously, there was a 10-year wait period for
expungement of all criminal records regardless of the seriousness of the offence.
TIJ supports the social partnership model for social reintegration by offering practical work experience
to women scheduled for release from prison. The project offers work experience in massage therapy,
spa treatment and coffeehouses and included the opening of a museum on women prisoners, which tells
personal stories of their pathways to crime and to rehabilitation. The aim of the museum is to enhance
public awareness by providing a detailed understanding of the complex lives of women prisoners. TIJ
also introduced its “Hygiene Street Food for Chance” programme, though which it partnered with theprivate sector to provide food-industry training from professional chefs and to provide women withfood carts to sell street food in a hygienic manner.
UNAFRI has assisted a project to enhance family contact in Uganda. In Africa, stigmatization of
offenders is a serious problem that often results in their ostracization from society. The project, “FromPrison Back Home”, forms the bedrock of Uganda’s rehabilitation and reintegration programme,
asserting that, to bring an offender back into society, a needle is required to re-stitch the torn social
fabric. The project advocated starting rehabilitation immediately upon incarceration and maintaining
family contact throughout the custodial sentence. Other measures promoted by the project include
10vocational training for offenders and linking inmates with trade schools and universities around theworld, ensuring that inmates are exposed to the outside world through access to print and broadcast
media, and promoting communication between inmates and their families through social workers.
UNAFRI is also encouraging the government of Uganda to establish a legal framework for community
care.
Measuring the impact of strategies to reduce reoffending
TIJ developed a model to prove the cost-benefit of its projects to its stakeholders. TIJ is following up
with participants through detailed interviews within eight months of programme completion. One ofthe data points is income earned through the field in which the offender was trained. Direct costs andopportunity costs of reoffending are also estimated, as well as the social costs of crime and related
governmental expenditures. The reoffending rate of the programme is also compared with the national
reoffending rate. For each dollar invested in the programme, TIJ has calculated 8.2 dollars in benefits
to society. TIJ hopes to apply this analysis to all of its programmes in the future.
UNAFEI introduced Japan’s practices on data collection through the System for Crime and Recidivism
Prevention (SCRP), which links up data from public prosecutors’ offices, the Correction Bureau andthe Rehabilitation Bureau. This has made it possible to conduct cross-organization evaluation. The
Ministry of Justice Case Assessment Tool (MCJA) programme was developed to identify the likelihoodof reoffending among juveniles and involved the statistical analysis of 6,000 juveniles admitted tojuvenile classification homes. The analysis found that a substance abuse treatment programme was
effective at reducing reoffending within the first six months of programme completion. It was observedthat when providing technical assistance, evidence-based practices need to be implemented over thelong term, realistically and sustainably. UNAFEI also shared Japan’s experience providing technicalassistance to Uzbekistan on data collection and the publication of crime statistics in the form of white
papers. The importance of taking a long-term approach and pursuing steady, incremental success wasunderscored.

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