The request from the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) was initially unusual and took everyone by surprise. The background to this was the desire of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine to gain an insight into the juvenile justice system in Germany in order to gain impetus for a reform of criminal law in Ukraine. In particular, they also wanted to find out more about the crime prevention approach of "Kurve kriegen".
After the delegation visited Heinsberg Prison, it quickly became clear that a visit to the Kurve kriegen site in Heinsberg was the obvious next step.
The permanent representative of the district administrator, Philip Schneider, welcomed the delegation of 12 people and began by talking about the structure of the police and the administrative organization in North Rhine-Westphalia and specifically in Heinsberg.
The head of the police department, Dirk Melz, then explained why he was very pleased when "Kurve kriegen" was implemented in Heinsberg, as he was already head of the Rhine-Erft district during the project phase of the initiative and was therefore familiar with the initiative from the very beginning (2011). Mr. Melz emphasized that, in his view, it was a novelty that police officers and social workers worked together so closely and professionally as colleagues and even had their offices "door to door" with the police. This close and trusting cooperation with absolute clarity of roles is a large part of the success of "Kurve kriegen".
The presentation by the police contact person, Jürgen Heitzer, and the educational specialist, Susanne Franken, rounded off the day and described the goals and tasks of the initiative as well as the actual work in the run-up to an admission and the subsequent cooperation with the participants and their families, in particular the educational work with them.
The questions from the delegation participants clearly showed us how interested the audience was in the initiative and its concrete implementation. The explanations on educational work in particular led to many questions, discussions and approval.
The feedback from the Ukrainian delegation was consistently positive and we were able to provide some crime prevention impetus with the presentations.