SITUATION IN PENITENTIARY INSTITUTIONS
Rights has discussed this issue in the context of inhuman and degrading treatment in many of its judgments.51
Prisoners are experiencing are difficulties such as lack of bedside-tables and shelves and thus they can do nothing
but to put their items and fruits on the floor and on their beds.
In the Institution No. 7, prisoners are not allowed to have shaving and nail care tools in their cells. All such tools
belonging to prisoners from the same cell are kept in various boxes made of what formerly used to be milk product
packages. These boxes are, on its turn, kept in officers’ duty room together with various supplies and stationery.
This is not only a violation of hygienic norms but a potential source of contagious diseases.
We should note that, in the Institution No. 7, 28 prisoners are suffering from chronic hepatitis C and their items of
personal hygiene such as shaving and nail care tools must not be kept with those of others, since this poses other
prisoners under the danger of getting infected with the disease.
The Institution No. 7 does not have a laundry room and the prisoners have to wash and dry their clothes and linen
by themselves, in their cells.
Recommendation to the Minister of Corrections:
QQ To provide the population of the Penitentiary Institution No. 7 with appropriate conditions
to meet the requirements of hygiene.
THE RIGHT TO STAY ON FRESH AIR
QQ
In Yevgeniy Alekseyenko v. Russia, the European Court of Human Rights stated that the applicant’s situation that
he had to spend the entire days and nights in the cell was exacerbated by the fact that the opportunity for outdoor
exercise was limited to one hour a day.52
In Moiseyev v. Russia, the Court found that the outdoor exercise yard that was just two square meters larger than
the cell and was surrounded by three-meter-high walls with the opening to the sky protected with metal bars was
not able to provide recreation and recuperation.53
In Ananyev and Others v. Russia, the Court explained that in assessing the conditions of detention, special attention must be paid to the availability and duration of outdoor exercise and the conditions in which prisoners can
take it.54
Under Article 14(g) of the Georgian Code of Imprisonment, convicted and remand prisoners have the right to be
on fresh air at least 1 hour a day.
In none of the pretrial detention facilities and closed-type institutions for convicted prisoners are exercise yards
properly equipped. The prisoners thus have to spend their walk time on their feet. Often times they waive their
right to take a walk or prefer to go back to their cells before due for this reason.
51 Ramishvili and Kokhreidze v. Georgia, Judgment of 27 January 2009, par. 86; Aleksandr Makarov v. Russia, Judgment of 12
March 2009, par. 97.
52 Yevgeniy Alekseyenko v. Russia, Judgment of 27 January 2011, par. 88.
53 Moiseyev v. Russia, Judgment of 9 October 2008, par. 125.
54 Ananyev and Others v. Russia, Judgment of 10 January 2012, par. 150.
55 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 5 to 15 February 2010, par. 17, available at http://www.
cpt.coe.int/documents/geo/2010-27-inf-geo.pdf [last accessed 16.03.2014].
2013
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has recommended the Georgian Government to
ensure that both sentenced and remand prisoners are able to spend a reasonable part of the day (8 hours or more)
outside their cells, engaged in purposeful activity of a varied nature. Prisoners under special security regime must
have such opportunity for at least 1 hour every day.55
NPM Report
17
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