Çolak and Oğuz met with Probation Manager Mr. Leyla Karakülah and social worker Harun Kayışoğlu during the day-long visit. Bakırkoy Probation Directorate, one of the important external stakeholders of Social Work Department was visited in order to thank for the cooperation activities it has carried out with the department during 2018-2019 academic year and to agree on potential future cooperation activities.
In the 2018-2019 academic year, the Bakırköy Probation Directorate contributed to our depertment with the “Forensic and Industrial Social Work Practices” event which held on 07.05.2019 with the participation of two social workers as speakers and with the participation of a social worker to the “Career Orientation ”course on 18.03.2019. In these activities which are a good example of the academy - public cooperation, the Directorate has shown sensitivity about transference of practical knowledge from the field to the students and about sharing the professional experiences of social workers.
During the visit, a plaque was presented to the director of the institution, Leyla Karakülah, to thank on behalf of the university and the department. In the conversation, Karakülah stated that they are happy to contribute to the professional development of social work students as one of the stakeholders in forensic field and they will continue to contribute in the coming periods. Karakülah, whom we wanted from her to evaluate probation practices as the director of the institution, stated that Bakırköy Probation services have made significant contributions for prevention of criminality, especially for the first time perpetrators whom are reintergrated to the society without experiencing the prison environment.
She stated that they have been working in coordination with the Ministry of Justice to solve the problems encountered in practice and new needs arising from changingin conditions. They express their problems, requests and needs in the workshops and/or they can to the policy makers by e-mail according to the urgency of the situation.
The meeting ended with the agreement of continuation of cooperation between Istanbul Gelisim University Social Service Department and Bakirkoy Probation Directorate on internship practices, participation in seminars, conferences, courses and project development in the next academic year.
The visit continued with the interview with Harun Kayışoğlu who works as a social worker in the institution. We presented a plaque to Kayışoğlu who was planned to attend the event as a speaker but could not be among us because he had an serious illness on the day of the event.
Kayışoğlu emphasized the importance of “here and now” principle, which is one of the important principle of social work, in the works they conducted with individuals benefiting from probation. He also stated that, in the interviews with perpetrators, they aim to change the mind set and contribute lives to make them psychosocially healthy individuals using this principle. Kayışoğlu added, apart from individual interviews, group works are done about anger control, smoking, alcohol and drug addiction and changing life in a systematic and programmed way and seminars are held about effective communication, personal development and awareness, stress management, time management, social rules.
Probation has been implemented in our country with the Law No. 5402 “Probation and Assistance Centers and Protection Boards Law” on 20.07.2005.
According to this law, probation services are practiced in line with a certain supervision plan for the children, young and adult who have been convicted by the related court but whose sentence is postponed, released or judged against any prison sentence. It is a community-based practice that includes informing, guiding and assisting people for improvement in the society instead of the penal institutions by solving their psychosocial problems, providing programs and resources and integrate them in society. The practice is carried out on the basis of the principles of respect and honesty, confidentiality, impartiality and the best interests of the child principles, which are also important principles and values of social work.
With probation, it is aimed to correct the behaviors of perpetrators causing them to commit crimes, to prevent repeated crimes, to provide rehabilitation for drug addicts, to monitor after release, to regulate losses of victims and thus to protect the society. The social workers who graduated from the four-year social work department are employed in the Assessment and Planning, Training and Improvement, and Inspection offices in the Directorate of Probation under the Ministry of Justice.
