run by convicted/untried prisoners are subject to scrutiny implying visual examination without reading a content. However the administration has the right to read the content of correspondence and ban sending out provided that there is a reasonable doubt that the dissemination of information provided in the correspondence may threaten public order, security or undermine rights and freedoms of other individuals. Such a decision shall be immediately convey to a sender. According to Article 16, Part VI of the Imprisonment Code, a representative of the administration has no right to suspend and/or check the correspondence of a prisoner if the addressee is the president of Georgia, the spokesperson of the parliament or the prime minister, member of the parliament, court of law, the European Court of Human Rights, an international organization created in accordance with an international agreement or covenant ratified by the government of Georgia, a Georgian ministry, department, the Public Defender of Georgia, advocate, prosecutor. It is worth noting that according to Article 79, Part II the prisoner may be restricted in his/her rights stipulated by Paragraph C of the same article upon a justified decision of an investigator or a prosecutor. Protection of confidentiality pertaining to correspondence by the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia is of particular importance. However, the Special Preventive Group revealed cases involving the infringement of correspondence of the Public Defender’s Office. For instance, during a visit to the Institution N17, the group members discovered that the correspondence received from the Public Defender’s Office had been delivered in opened envelopes by one of the convicts working in the institution’s library. In addition, during a visit to the Institution N2, a member of the Special Preventive Group discovered that a staff member of the chancellery had opened the correspondence from the Public Defender’s Office and made a copy of the letter. According to the staff member, this was a normal routine in the institution. Therefore, all measures must be undertaken to eliminate this illegal practice. Correspondences from penitentiary institutions are sent with help of social services. Data obtained from the Penitentiary Department suggest that194 3  135 letters of complaint was sent via a complaints box during the reporting period. It is worth noting that 50 per cent of letters were sent from the Institution N17 while Institution 15 accounted for 47 per cent of the correspondence. Prisoners in other institutions do not normally use this mechanism. 194 Written response (128288) from the Ministry of Penitentiary on February 2, 2015 152 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM OF GEORGIA