Honorary Position for Prof. Dr. Reiss

Starting November 26, 2018, Prof. Dr. Hans-Christoph Reiss will serve as a scientific advisor to the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Justice for the Correctional System. Professor Reiss is part of a five-member advisory team and will support the ministry with his expertise in economics. The challenges in the correctional system are multifaceted. For this reason, a wide variety of professionals work together in correctional facilities to support inmates as effectively as possible in achieving their rehabilitation goals. At the same time, the need to ensure security requires that these efforts take place behind closed walls. This complicates the scientific monitoring of correctional processes. To intensify the exchange between research and the correctional system, Minister of Justice Herbert Mertin has appointed four additional scholars, in addition to Professor Reiss, as volunteer expert advisors: Professor Dr. Dr. Hauke, Chair of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Medical Law at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz,
Privatdozent Dipl.-Psych. Dr. Martin Rettenberger, Director of the Central Office for Criminology in Wiesbaden.
Professor Dr. Wolfgang Retz, Mainz University Medical Center, Head of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, and since 2017 Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Saarland University and Director of the Institute for Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry.
Professor Dr. Mark Zöller, Chair of German, European, and International Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the University of Trier.
This makes Prof. Dr. Reiss the sole representative of the state’s universities on this committee. Upon the appointment, the minister expressed his delight and stated: “It is by no means a given to find people who are willing to volunteer their time for the correctional system. It is a great asset for the correctional system to be able to draw on the expertise of no fewer than five outstanding scholars from various disciplines in the future. This opens up the possibility of examining existing data even more closely and gaining new insights, so that we can be even better prepared for upcoming challenges in the correctional system. Conversely, the scholars benefit from better access to this interesting field of research. The establishment of the expert advisor model is therefore a win-win for both sides.”