Prisoners & Released Prisoners


KETHEA has set up comprehensive programmes which seek to deal with addiction within the criminal justice and prison system. These include KETHEA EN DRASEI and KETHEA PROMITHEAS, which run units inside Greek prisons as well as reception, treatment and social reintegration centres for former inmates in society. At the same time, most KETHEA programmes around Greece also provide services inside their local prisons.

KETHEA’s prison interventions tackle the problems relating to drug use, lawbreaking and incarceration in an integrated way and fully reintegrate participants into society.

Everyone who joins a KETHEA programmes can benefit from legal provisions designed to facilitate their efforts to fully recover and reintegrate themselves into society (conditional release, suspended sentences etc.), irrespective of whether they have been released or are still in prison.

  • Prison Counselling Programmes

    Inmates start their participation in the treatment process when they join a KETHEA Counselling Programmes. KETHEA runs 18 Counselling Programmes, covering most of the prisons in Greece. The programmes:

    • Diagnose and evaluate addicts’ problems.
    • Motivate addicts to tackle their health problems.
    • Reduce addicts’ involvement with substances.
    • Inform, motivate and prepare addicts to join a counselling or treatment programme, either in prison or outside in society, making use of the legal provisions for “conditional release”.
    • Counsel inmates’ families in cooperation with KETHEA services that are active in society.

  • Prison Rehabilitation Units

    When an inmate completes a counselling programme, they can be referred to one of KETHEA’s prison recovery units for the main phase of their treatment. KETHEA runs a total of four therapeutic communities in male and female prisons around Greece. These include Greece’s very first prison rehabilitation unit to be housed in its own separate wing and operate on a round-the-clock basis.
    The prison rehabilitation units seek to achieve full recovery by:

    • examining the causes and the triggers of the addiction,
    • gradually changing negative behaviours and helping participants acquire new strategies for dealing with problems,
    • providing education and training,
    • reconnecting participants with their families in collaboration with KETHEA’s units outside prisons,
    • referring participants to community-based rehabilitation programmes.
  • Reception and Rehabilitation Centres for Released Prisoners

    The Centres provide all the services included in a comprehensive treatment programme, fully covering the needs of ex-prisoners at the various stages of their treatment:

    Counselling, preparation and mobilization for treatment.

    • Full recovery treatment.
    • Social reintegration and post-treatment follow-up.
    • Vocational counselling, education and training.
    • Health care.
    • Family support.
    • Legal support.

    KETHEA runs two Reception and Reintegration Centres for Released Prisoners: one in Athens (KETHEA EN DRASI) and one in Thessaloniki (KETHEA PROMITHEAS).

  • Counselling Centre in the Juvenile Courts

    The KETHEA STROFI Counselling Centre in the Athens Juvenile Courts welcomes young offenders who are involved in substance abuse and have been referred to them by the authorities responsible for minors. It provides motivation to abstain from substance use, tries to help the young people to avoid any further involvement in transgressive activities, counters social marginalization, improves family relationships and refers individuals to drug treatment programmes.