according to the Public Defender’s recommendation, prisoners should be explained
that they have the right to appeal their movement order. The Parliament approved
these recommendations in its “Resolution on the Report of the Public Defender on the
Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2013”. However, the Ministry
of Corrections has not fulfilled the recommendations and the practice concerned has
not changed yet.
It has been emphasized in the Public Defender’s 2013 Report that remand prisoners
and convicted prisoners are not fully isolated from each other in the penitentiary
institutions.60 Neither are juvenile prisoners and adult prisoners.61 These two issues
are still a matter of concern at the penitentiary institution no. 8. Accordingly, the
Public Defender’s recommendation has not been fulfilled.
Monitoring carried out at the Institution no. 6 showed that all convicted prisoners,
with no distinction by their imprisonment regime, were allowed to exercise outdoors
under the same rule – one hour a day. In other words, prisoners who are serving
their sentence under a half-open regime cannot move freely inside the institution on a
territory designated for that purpose despite the fact that they are entitled to a leisure
time for 6 hours and 30 minutes every day under the prison regulations. It follows
that, in the Institution no. 6, such prisoners are not able to exercise their freedom to
the extent guaranteed to them by the Georgian legislation.
The Public Defender believes this problem has to do with the lack of appropriate
infrastructure at the Institution no. 6. This Institution is unfit for housing both closed
regime and half-open regime prisoners at the same time.
2.3.6. SECURITY MEASURES; MANAGEMENT OF INCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES
2.3.6.1. SMART RECEPTION UNITS
On 2 December 2014, the Order of the Minister of Corrections, Probation and Legal
Assistance no. 97 dated 30 May 2011 was amended determining legal grounds for
placing prisoners in the Smart Reception Unit. There is a separate de-escalation room
in the Smart Reception Unit. According to the amended ministerial order, if a remand
or sentenced prisoner in the waiting room is a threat to his/her own or others’ lives,
the penitentiary institution’s administration may allocate such a prisoner in a properlyequipped de-escalation room within the institution under a 24-hour visual supervision
and with an uninterrupted access to the healthcare personnel. A de-escalation room
must be equipped with a safe matrass, a surveillance camera (the lavatory pan must
60
61
Institution no. 7 is referred to as an example, p. 62. The report is accessible at http://www.
ombudsman.ge/uploads/other/1/1563.pdf [last viewed 15.02.2015].
A recommendation about isolating juvenile priosoners from adult prisoenrs has also became part
of the Parliament’s Resolution on the Report of the Public Defender on the Protection of Human
Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2013
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM OF GEORGIA
43
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