Degrading Treatment or Punishment, “Each State Party shall ensure that education and information regarding the prohibition against torture are fully included in the training of law enforcement personnel, civil or military, medical personnel, public officials and other persons who may be involved in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment.” This implies an obligation of the State to elaborate a program based on a human rights methodology. Equally important is the subsequent use of the knowledge received at trainings. As the international experience shows, prison training programs are often times incompatible with the human rights-based approach and procedures and lack practical application. Prison staff prefers to do things the way they have always done.32 In order to maintain sustainability and practicability of trainings, mechanisms for training assessment should be developed. Training effectiveness should be evaluated differently to show whether the actual performance has improved. Training evaluation may be done on the basis of the following criteria: participant satisfaction and inclusion, willingness to use the learned knowledge in practice, and knowledge testing including by simulations and operational scenarios.33 Qualifications and experience of the penitentiary system employees remains one of the major challenges of the penitentiary system in Georgia. The following activities have been implemented in the Georgian penitentiary institutions in this regard: A UNDP program has been approved for the Public Law Entity “Penitentiary and Probation Training Center” envisaging a number of new opportunities for the Training Center. With the help from the Council of Europe, the Penitentiary and Probation Center developed a 6-month training program for new staff. Based on the positive results achieved, it was decided to continue with the program in 2015. On the basis of the mentioned teaching module, a uniform training program for current employees was elaborated which will start to be implemented in 2015. Trainings for the management level of the penitentiary institutions are continuing and are primarily aimed at human rights protection and prevention of torture and ill-treatment. It is important for prison staff trainings to be designed in a way to uphold protection of human rights and prevent torture and ill-treatment in penitentiary institutions. In drafting training programs, consideration should be given to sufficient frequency of trainings and relevance of training topics. Also, special attention should be paid to enhancing the penitentiary personnel’s ability to work as a team, based on a multidisciplinary approach. 32 33 United Nations Prison Incident Management Handbook, 2013, p. 23. Andrew Coyle, A human Rights Approach to prison management, International Centre for Prison Studies, (2009). 30 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM OF GEORGIA