positive changes in the behaviour of convicted persons, their rehabilitation and their reintegration into the society.29 The following remains to be a challenge in the penitentiary system: lack of procedural and institutional safeguards against ill-treatment; large penitentiary establishments where it is more difficult to maintain order and security; ensuring adequate conditions of imprisonment; the problem related to providing adequate rehabilitation services; the lack of such services increases the influence of the criminal underworld and risks of ill-treatment; the established approaches based on maintaining order and security in a penitentiary establishment which are based on negative aspects of managing prisoners’ behaviour30 and diminishes the feeling of fair treatment and increases the likelihood of violent incidents; the legislation governing risk-assessment of convicts and the existing practice of riskassessment which cannot ensure reduction of risks from convicted persons and unconducive to their rehabilitation; the lack of activities aimed at rehabilitation and resocialisation and lack of contact with the outside world; infrastructural conditions in penitentiary establishments; shortcomings in medical care and preventive health care; mental health care; creation of penitentiary establishments based on equality; and lack of personnel and their working conditions. Against the background of the existing situation, managers of penitentiary establishments are tempted – in order to maintain order in penitentiary establishments – to allow the informal rule of the criminal underworld to a certain degree or even facilitate its existence.31 Similar to the previous years,32 according to the information received during the monitoring conducted in 2018 (conversations with prisoners and employees of penitentiary establishments), criminal underworld and informal rule in penitentiary establishments remain a significant challenge. In the opinion of the Special Preventive Group, it is necessary to develop a relevant strategy and carry out targeted, complex measures for overcoming the informal rule of the criminal underworld.33 29 The Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 4. It implies punishing, controlling and subduing prisoners with maximum restrictions, prohibitions and discomfort, inter alia, with the use of the criminal underworld. 31 The 2015 Report to the Georgian Government on the visit to Georgia carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from in 2014. According to the report, the committee was concerned with the phenomenon of informal power structures existing within a prison, which in the committee’s view can sometimes generate risks of intimidation or extortion, and possibly contribute to inter-prisoner violence, para. 56, the report is available at: https://goo.gl/2f5bwa, (accessed 28 February 2019) 32 The parliamentary reports of 2015, 2016, and 2017 of the Public Defender discuss criminal underworld existing in penitentiary establishments. 33 It is noteworthy that the small number of applications lodged with the Public Defender’s Office from semiopen establishments indicates the existence of the criminal underworld in these establishments (the so-called zones). In 2018, 8 applications were filed from establishment no. 14, where annually, 1,011 prisoners were accommodated on average; 17 applications were filed from establishment no. 15, where annually 1,811 prisoners 30 22