Romanian Director General to advise SUCPS

Dr. Ioan Bala PhD is Director General of the National Administration of Prisons, Romania. A recognized European prisons expert, Dr. Bala is member of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA); the European-Middle Correctional Roundtable (MECR) and the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL).

When he took up his post as Director General in 2008, Dr. Bala started the process of opening the Romanian prison system up to the outside community and also to the academic community . A new project proposal entitled ‘Prisons in the EU: a Pan European Approach to Staff Training’, which will be submitted in 2011 by a team coordinated by SUCPS under the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, was made possible only by the vision of Dr.Bala, who has given his full support to the use of e-learning technologies in the process of training staff. Dr. Bala has been extremely supportive in a range of other SUCPS / NAP common projects, including the development of a multi-partner analysis of prison staff training needs.

Dr. Bala has, over the years, been involved in a number of social projects, founding, in 1998, the Humanitarian Association "Holy Apostles Peter and Paul” to introduce probation into the Romanian prison system. He is currently Coordinator of the multidisciplinary team that aims to modernize and equip clinics in the Children’s Hospital "Louis Turcanu of Timisoara” and is a Member of the Association for the Advancement of Women in Romania.

Dr. Bala is also an active academic. Since 2000 he has taught a number of subjects at West University of Timisoara, including Criminology in the Department of Social Work and a Sociology of Deviance course in the Faculty of Law.

We are delighted and honoured that Dr. Bala has agreed to act as our International Advisor for Prisons, Romania.