deprivation of liberty. The monitoring results raise security concerns such as conflicts between the prison administration and the prisoners, which is exacerbated by inadequate reaction or lack of reaction of penitentiary officials in specific situations, improper follow-up on complaints and lack of awareness by prisoners of the services available to them. The level of knowledge and qualifications of the prison staff are insufficient. Against this background, the prisoners are often resorting to hunger strikes and injuring themselves. A high risk of violence among prisoners and the impact of criminal mentality in penitentiary institutions are a serious problem. This is what makes it necessary to introduce a system that would ensure maintaining good order and security in prisons according to international standards; in particular, it is necessary to actually implement the concept of dynamic security and develop a wellthought-through plan for management of incidents and emergencies. Unfortunately the moving of prisoners from one institution to another remained a frequent practice in 2014. The Public Defender’s Office is unable to evaluate whether or not the individual decisions to transfer prisoners between different prisons were reasonable because, according to an official explanation by the Penitentiary Department, the decisions are based on secret letters authored by prison directors; since these letters contain criminal intelligence information, the Public Defender’s representatives have no right to access them. Our observation is that prisoners are often moved from the penitentiary institutions located in the eastern Georgia to those located in the eastern Georgia and vice versa. It is for that reason that the prisoners have difficulty to maintain contact with their families and lawyers and are experiencing additional stress related to adaptation to the changed environment. In regard to movement of prisoners, the Special Preventive Group also inspected the vehicles designated for moving prisoners and concluded that the conditions of transportation are unsatisfactory and represent a serious nuisance for prisoners. Furthermore, we found out that inside a Mercedes vehicle designed for moving the prisoners there is a small-size metal booth (with an area of about 0.3 square meters), which is narrow, is not aerated and it is completely dark inside. The booth is usually used to transport women prisoners and prisoners who belong to sexual minorities. The Special Preventive Group believes that placing an individual in such booths is a degrading treatment and the booths must be removed. Ensuring proper conditions to prisoners requires a great deal of attention. Compared to previous years, the physical environment and hygiene have improved in a number of penitentiary institutions. However, the existing conditions in the Georgian penitentiary institutions are still leaving a lot of room for improvement. Some of the common problems are: insufficient artificial ventilation in residential cells, quarantine cells and solitary confinement cells; insufficient natural light and ventilation; short time for outdoor exercising and lack of exercising opportunities in closed institutions; lack of required equipment and conditions in the yards of penitentiary institutions designed for outdoor exercising; and lack of infrastructure to support long-term visits. NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM OF GEORGIA 13