the prisoners every month during special conditions, although during monitoring visits in summer and fall of 2020, inmates noted that free telephone conversation time was only allocated in spring. The Public Defender considers that the addition of 15 minutes of free telephone conversation time is not adequate compensation of restrictions on visits. The Penitentiary Service should share the practice of European countries148 and in addition to increasing the time of telephone conversation, should take care to maintain visual contact with family members of prisoners. Thus, it is important to make it possible at the legislative level to exchange long visits into telephone calls. Also switching short and long visits into video dates. It is important that prisoners at special risk facilities are also given the opportunity to make a video appointment. Besides the special risk penitentiary facilities, the video meetings infrastructure is not available in N2, N10, N12 and N18 facilities. In the institutions where video call is possible, the use of video calling during the pandemic does not increase, but decreases.149 The fact that the right to video meeting is not properly exercised is largely related to the need for a prisoner's family member to pay a visit to Crime Prevention and Probation Agency's territorial unit.150 Thus, it is important to revise the rules of video meetings in order to ensure more active and frequent use of video calls by adapting to the existing challenges. In addition, it is important for the Ministry of Justice to start working on creating a secure application that will facilitate the implementation of video calling.151 The Public Defender pointed out the importance of introducing a secure application as soon as special conditions were introduced, but no steps were taken in this regard throughout the year.152 The practice of restricting means of contact with the outside world in the form of disciplinary sanctions remains a challenge in the penitentiary system. Even in a pandemic, when telephone conversations were practically the only means of contact with the outside world, this right was being restricted. For example, in March, April and May, when even short visits were suspended, the restriction of the right to telephone Extra free phone conversation time is much longer in different countries. So for example: in France an additional free package of 40 Euros was allocated for each prisoner, which corresponds to an additional 11 hours of talking to local and 5 hours of talking to mobile operators. A voice messaging service has also been introduced for family members. Telephone time in Italian penitentiaries has increased and become free for prisoners, for which 3,600 telephones have been purchased. In Portugal, the number of telephone limits was tripled for each prisoner. In Catalonia, 10 authorized phone calls per week have been increased to 20 and are free for economically disadvantaged prisoners. Smartphones were also purchased for inmates in some facilities on a pilot basis. European countries are taking care of activating video calls, for which they are using the existing infrastructure and also adding new equipment. Information on compensatory measures taken in penitentiary institutions by state is available at: https://www.europris.org/covid-19-prevention-measures-in-europeanprisons/ [last visited: 17.01.2021]. 149 According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, a total of 456 video calls were made in penitentiary institutions in January 2020, and only 373 in November 2020. Only 101 video calls were made in April 2020, when the strictest restrictions were in force. 150 Part 3 of Article 171 of the Code of Imprisonment and Order N55 of the Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia of April 5, 2011 "On Approval of the Rules for the Use of Video Calls with Convicts". 151 For example, making safe video calls from penitentiaries. Example of the United Kingdom. Available at: https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/services/323059409385538 [last visited: 18.01.2021]. 152 See the follow-up report of the special monitoring visit to the Public Defender to the N17 Penitentiary Establishment on April 30, 2020, May 1 and May 7, 2020. P. 21. Available at:https://www.ombudsman.ge/res/docs/2020061009033574571.pdf [Last visited: 20.01.2021]. 148 57