Special Report on the Monitoring of the Penitentiary Establishments and Temporary Detention Isolators of Georgia
The present Report covers the findings of the monitoring of penitentiary establishments carried out by the Special Preventive Group of the Prevention and Monitoring Department of the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia exercising its power within the National Preventive Mechanism in the fi rst half of 2011.
There were 241 ad hoc and 36 planned visits to penitentiary establishments of Georgia undertaken during the reporting period. Representatives of the Public Defender were allowed to and moved without any impediments within penitentiary establishments during the monitoring process. They were also able to select meeting points with inmates according to their own consideration and interview them confidentially.
When undertaking the planned monitoring the representatives of the Public Defender were checking the compliance of the conditions and practices in penitentiary establishments of Georgia with the Georgian legislation, as well as international standards. During the monitoring particular attention was devoted to the practice of employment of disciplinary punishment and treatment of inmates in each of the establishments.
Interviews with administration, staff , prisoners/convicts of establishments were held during monitoring. Majority of prisoners were visited during the monitoring of each of the establishments. Infrastructure and living conditions of each of the establishments including room for long term visits and rooms for mothers and children were checked and recorded. The ongoing rehabilitation works were observed in a number of establishments. All the solitary confinement cells and quarantine cells were visited in all the penitentiary establishments and all the prisoners staying in those cells during the monitoring were interviewed.
