Closing the legal gap in forensic psychiatric transfer across the EU
NOWY JA Foundation develops legal frameworks, bilateral transfer models, and community reintegration services to address a structural gap in European justice — the complete absence of any mechanism for the cross-border transfer of forensic psychiatric patients between EU member states.
A legal vacuum at the heart of European justice
Across the European Union, hundreds of foreign nationals are held in forensic psychiatric institutions under court-ordered treatment measures — not prison sentences, but indefinite psychiatric detention tied to mental health status. When these individuals are citizens of another EU member state, a profound legal problem emerges: no framework exists to transfer them home.
The EU's mutual recognition instruments — Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA, Convention CETS 112, and the European Supervision Order (2009/829/JHA) — were designed for prison sentences, not for open-ended psychiatric detention. The result is a structural incompatibility: the detaining country cannot release the patient without a receiving country guaranteeing equivalent clinical supervision, and the receiving country has no legal basis to enforce foreign psychiatric orders.
The gap is not political. It is structural, legal, and procedural — and it has never been formally addressed at the EU level. NOWY JA Foundation is the first organisation to develop an operational legal model to close it.
Masovian Voivodeship, Poland
Three areas of activity, one integrated mission
NOWY JA Foundation operates across three interconnected domains. Each addresses a distinct dimension of the same systemic problem — and together they form a complete, replicable model for EU-level forensic psychiatric transfer.
Hundreds of EU citizens trapped in a legal no-man's land
The TBS System — A Case Study
The Dutch terbeschikkingstelling (TBS) is an indefinite court-ordered treatment measure imposed on individuals convicted of serious violent offences who are deemed to pose a continuing danger to public safety. It is not a prison sentence — it is a psychiatric detention order, renewable every one or two years by the court.
“For Polish nationals in TBS, the language barrier alone is a clinical obstacle. Accurate psychiatric diagnosis, risk assessment (HCR-20v3, SAPROF), and therapeutic progress all require fluency in the patient's native language.”
The Hybrid Bridge Model — A first in EU history
Years of operational experience and legal analysis led to a key insight: attempting to transfer closed psychiatric detention is structurally impossible. The Bridge Model shifts the paradigm — from the impossible transfer of closed detention to cross-border supervision of probationary and therapeutic measures in an open environment.
How a transfer actually works under the Bridge Model
An unexplored field at the intersection of law, psychiatry, and EU policy
The forensic psychiatric transfer gap is not only a practical problem — it is a significant gap in academic and policy literature. NOWY JA Foundation invites academic institutions to collaborate on research that will generate the first empirical evidence base for EU-level policy reform.
Four unexplored research gaps
Joint research and publication with the Academy of Justice
NOWY JA Foundation holds the only operational dataset on cross-border forensic psychiatric transfer in EU history. We are seeking academic partners to co-author peer-reviewed publications and policy papers that will form the evidence base for EU-level legal reform.
Active projects and initiatives
Each project addresses a specific dimension of the forensic psychiatric transfer problem — from legal framework development to clinical infrastructure and community reintegration services.
Cooperation across two jurisdictions
NOWY JA Foundation operates at the intersection of Dutch and Polish institutional systems. Our work is grounded in direct cooperation with ministries, judicial authorities, and clinical institutions in both countries.
NOWY JA Foundation is the only organisation in Poland certified by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security to coordinate the conditional transfer of TBS patients. This certification is the result of a multi-year evaluation process and constitutes the legal basis for all transfer coordination activities.
Netherlands
Poland
Institutional cooperation enquiries
NOWY JA Foundation welcomes cooperation with ministries, academic institutions, local government, and grant bodies. Please select the relevant area below or contact us directly.
NOWY JA Foundation
Center for Forensic Psychiatric Transfer Coordination
Forensic psychiatric transfer supervision operator