National Preventive Mechanism carries out joint visits to places of detention with UK counterpart

The NPM – National Preventive Mechanism carried out joint visits to places of detention with its UK counterpart in November. The British NPM participated in the visits to the Detention Space at Lisbon Airport and to the Torres Novas prison establishment, and the Portuguese NPM team took part in the inspection of Garth prison, in Lancashire.

The joint visits stem from the partnership established between the Portuguese and UK NPMs, which is supported by Oxford University. The initiative began to be organised in 2019 with a view to taking place in 2020, but the context of the pandemic forced its implementation to be postponed.

This was the first of a series of activities to share experiences and knowledge that the two NPMs hope to continue developing in the future, together with experts from the University of Oxford.