ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER OF GEORGIA 2013 It should be noted that, in terms of duration of outdoor walk, the conditions in penitentiary institutions have generally improved but certain problems still persist in the Institution No. 7. Prisoners in the Institution No. 7 complain of the location and arrangement of the Institution’s walking yards. The yards are small-size and are located where there is almost no movement of air. As our monitoring shows, each walking area is as narrow as 13 square meters (4,2x3,1) and there are four such walking areas in the Institution. Each of these small yards is surrounded by walls of about three meters high and is covered with bars and an iron net. These conditions coupled with the fact that the yards are encompassed by buildings around them are responsible for the fact that sun beams and fresh air do not properly penetrate into the walking areas. One should also take into account that the Penitentiary Institution No. 7 is a closed-type facility for both sentenced and remand prisoners and the prisoners are entitled to 1 hour of walk per day. Amongst the Institution’s population are prisoners who are suffering or have previously suffered from lung tuberculosis multiple times. These prisoners are accommodated in the cells of the first floor with damp walls, floor and ceiling. This situation exacerbates their health condition dramatically increasing the risk of them getting infected with tuberculosis again. The right to stay on fresh air is limited in the Penitentiary Institution No. 14 as well. Although the Institution has a shared dining room, it is out of use and prisoners are provided with food in the cells. By lunch time, prisoners have to go back to their cells to have their lunch. The lunch time lasts for about 2 hours. During this period, the prisoners have to stay in their cells. This practice violates their right under the Code of Imprisonment to freely move around in the Institution’s territory during daytime. Recommendations to the Minister of Corrections: QQ In pretrial detention facilities and closed-type institutions for sentenced prisoners, to increase the time the prisoners can spend outside to breathe fresh air as much as possible; QQ To ensure that benches and inventory for physical exercises are installed and equipped in a way to suit different climate conditions. CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD QQ The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has been attaching considerable importance to maintaining good contact with the outside world by all persons deprived of their liberty. “The guiding principle should be to promote contact with the outside world; any restrictions on such contacts should be based exclusively on security concerns of an appreciable nature or considerations linked to available resources.”56 Likewise, Article 61 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners stresses the importance for the prisoners to maintain contact with the society. In particular, the treatment of prisoners should emphasize not their exclusion from the community, but their continuing part in it. Community agencies should, therefore, be enlisted wherever possible to assist the staff of the institution in the task of social rehabilitation of the prisoners. There should be in connection with every institution social workers charged with the duty of maintaining and improving all desirable relations of a prisoner with his family and with valuable social agencies. Steps should be taken to safeguard the rights relating to civil interests, social security rights and other social benefits of prisoners. Under Article 24.4 of the European Prison Rules, the arrangements for visits shall be such as to allow prisoners to maintain and develop family relationships in as normal a manner as possible. Short-term visits The Georgian Code of Imprisonment regulates rules of administering short-term visits to prisoners. In particular, under Article 62(2)(b), a sentenced prisoner who is serving his sentence in a half-open institution is entitled to 2 short-term visits per month and to 1 additional short-term visit a month as an incentive measure. 56 The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), The CPT Standards: “Substantive” Sections of the CPT’s General Reports, Strasbourg, 18 August 2000, p. 37. NPM Report 18