classification cells (so-called quarantine rooms) for a long time,62 which also serves the purpose of "teaching them a lesson" and punishing them. It should be noted that the conditions in the internal classification cells are discomfortable, as there is humidity, insufficient ventilation and poor sanitaryhygienic situation. In addition, during their stay in the internal classification cells, prisoners have limited access to their right to go for a walk, take a shower, have contact with the outside world or use the prison shop.63 The Public Defender was informed by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia that the Special Penitentiary Service was drafting instructions for the introduction of an effective practice of transferring prisoners from their living cells to internal classification cells.64 The Special Preventive Group believes that the transfer of prisoners to internal classification cells, as well as the regulation of this issue at the normative level, is categorically unacceptable, as it is highly likely that there will be conflicts among prisoners when a newly admitted prisoner, who is under penitentiary stress (and whose expected behavior is less known to the prison management), and a prisoner, who was transferred from his cell likely for his challenging behavior, are placed together. As for the practice of placing sentenced persons together with defendants, the above contradicts the Imprisonment Code65 and the statute of Establishment No. 8.66 The Public Defender considers that if it is necessary to transfer a prisoner from his cell for security reasons, he should be taken to alternative spaces rather than to internal classification cells, where newly admitted convicts or defendants are placed, or should be transferred to internal classification rooms only when there are no newly admitted convicts or defendants.67 2.2.2. Inter-prisoner violence Inter-prisoner physical violence According to the information received by the Special Preventive Group, conflicts among prisoners occur frequently for various reasons. Conflicts mainly arise when some prisoners use other prisoners’ 62 During the first 7 months of 2019, there were 551 cases of the transfer of the prisoner from the residential building to the internal classification cell. 63 Detailed information on the use of internal classification cells for punishment can be found in the report of the National Preventive Mechanism on the visits to Establishments Nos. 2, 8, 14 and 15, available at: <https://bit.ly/39dU8e2> [last accessed: 16.01.2020]. 64 Letter No. 371652/01 of the Special Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, December 13. 65 According to Article 9 (2) of the Imprisonment Code, in a mixed-type facility, defendants shall be isolated from convicts at least through separate living spaces. 66 According to Article 14 (2) of the Statute of Penitentiary Establishment No. 8, "Convicts and defendants shall be placed separately from each other." 67 According to subparagraph ‘k’ of Article 2 of the Instructions for Organizing Legal Regime in Penitentiary Establishments approved by Order No. 200 of the Minister of Corrections of Georgia on August 1, 2013, an internal classification cell is intended for the placement of newly admitted defendants/convicts, where they are supervised for the purpose of allocating them to the cells, as well as for epidemiological purposes - to isolate persons suspected of being infected with various communicable diseases (before diagnosing them). 38