ensuring that already opposing prisoners are placed in different cells or different wings. Because of this, other issues remain beyond attention, e.g. prisoner's personal qualities, habits, behavior, risks, etc, which often become the cause of disagreement between prisoners in closed space. Consideration of the above issues is important for the effective management of a penitentiary facility in terms of protecting prisoners' rights and safety. The placement of defendants and convicts in one and the same cell is often the cause of conflicts. Thus, the international standards89 and the requirement of the Imprisonment Code90 to place untried persons in a special cell are violated. It is difficult to identify the staff of the Legal Regime and Security Department in semi-open facilities and to apply to them, if necessary. This was mainly conditioned by two reasons. The staff spent most of their time in the yard, while the duty room was often empty. The second reason was the issue of equipping staff with uniforms. It is welcome that the latter problem has now been eliminated, as the Special Penitentiary Service has provided staff with new uniforms since December 2019. Ultimately, it should be emphasized that due to the problem of overcrowding and staff shortage, prison staff are not able to properly perform their duties, which puts the safety of prisoners at risk. Informal governance The Public Defender has emphasized over the years that informal governance poses a serious danger of ill-treatment of prisoners, often leading to violence and oppression among prisoners. In Georgia, as in other post-Soviet countries, the prison criminal subculture dates back to the early 20th century, when the above was widely used by the penitentiaries to control and manage prisoners.91 The Special Preventive Group considers that in the light of the problem of proper management of penitentiary facilities, the scale of informal governance is gradually increasing, which requires timely response. The influence of criminal subculture results in an informal division of prisoners. Some prisoners, who are in privileged position, exercise informal governance through repressive methods, which often leads to violence among prisoners and punishment of those who do not obey the rules of informal governance. Despite the fact that prisoners92 are in the cell for 23 hours, the Special Preventive Group received information in Establishment No. 2 that members of criminal subculture could move freely on the 89 According to United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by Resolution 70/175 of the UN General Assembly (Nelson Mandela Rules), Untried prisoners shall be kept separate from convicted prisoners (Rule No. 11 (b)). 90 Imprisonment Code, Article 9, part 2. 91 Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Ashlarba v. Georgia (no. 45554/08) para. 22; M. Gelotti, Russian and Post-Soviet Organized Crime, 2002, p. 515. 92 Except for convicts employed in the penitentiary establishment. 45