prisoners of Establishment No. 8 were extorting money from one of their cellmates and were
threatening to kill them in case of refusal.
Under informal governance, prisoners are divided into categories and are stigmatized. The Public
Defender has been pointing out for years that those employed in the penitentiary establishment and
those responsible for cleaning are in a particularly vulnerable situation, are stigmatized and isolated
from prison life. Those responsible for cleaning are not perceived as equal people. They are referred to
by derogatory names, are placed separately, have a separate room for long visits, as well as a separate
shower room; their food is cooked in a separate pot. In the event of any contact with them, prisoners
are forced to harm themselves or those responsible for cleaning. Every prisoner is aware of this rule.
Even prisoners in charge of distributing food stay as far away as possible from prisoners in charge of
cleaning. Prisoners note that their employment in the penitentiary establishment increases the
likelihood of harassment and thus they avoid to be employed. Because of this, even prisoners with
critical financial needs are forced to refuse to be employed and earn income.
2.3. Detection, documentation and investigation of cases of violence
According to the rule established by Order No. 131 of the Minister of Corrections of Georgia (issued
on October 26, 2016), if medical staff notices a suspicious physical injury or changes in prisoner’s
emotional state, they shall make every effort to obtain information about the above from the patient.
It is essential that the doctor examining the detainee be able to determine the likelihood of infliction
of injury through violence, even if the patient does not say it. He/she should also be able to document
the psychological and psychiatric proof of violence and to determine the degree of consistency between
the prisoner’s narrative of ill-treatment and the results of medical examination.69
The monitoring of penitentiary facilities shows that the practice of identifying and documenting
alleged ill-treatment by doctors is problematic. In particular, in case of detecting suspicious injuries on
the body of a prisoner in a semi-open penitentiary facility, doctors do not document it in accordance
with the rules approved by Order No. 131 of the Minister of Corrections of Georgia. As for closed
facilities, according to the above rule, injuries shall be documented only if the prisoner indicates that
he was ill-treated by police officers when he was admitted to the facility.70
69
Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel,. Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, (Istanbul Protocol) UN, 2004, para. 122, as well as Order No. 131 of the Minister of
Corrections of Georgia of October 26, 2016.
70 According to letter No. 367169/01 of the Special Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia dated
December 9, 2019, the bodily injuries of 15 prisoners were documented in Penitentiary Establishments Nos. 8
and 2 from January 1, 2019 to October 31, 2019, in accordance with Order No. 131 of the Minister of Corrections
dated October 26, 2016. There were 12 cases of documentation in Penitentiary Establishment No. 8 - information
provided by the untried person to the doctor served as the basis for the documentation. As for Penitentiary
Establishment No. 2, the number of documented cases of bodily injuries was 3 at the stage of placement.
40
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