comparison with 2015, there were more incidents involving the use of handcuffs in penitentiary establishments nos. 2 and 6 in 2016.80 In the Parliamentary Report of 2015, the Public Defender proposed the following to the Parliament to Georgia: • To amend the Imprisonment Code to the effect of inserting prohibition of the use of tear gas indoors; • To amend the Imprisonment Code to the effect of determining types of nonlethal weapons; and • To amend the Imprisonment Code to the effect of inserting prohibition of the use handcuffs for pinning down a person onto a solid surface. The above recommendations have not been fulfilled. The Public defender emphasises that the fulfilment of the recommendations at stake is important for securing human rights and legal safeguards when using special means of restriction. It is noteworthy that the statutes of high risk prison facilities allowed routine use of handcuffs without any justification. The statutes stipulated that removal of a prisoner from the cell and movement on the premises of the establishment before reaching the place of destination during the daytime was only allowed with the use of handcuffs. Following the recommendation of the Public Defender, in December 2016 and January 2017, the statutes of the high risk prison facilities were amended to the effect of changing the aforementioned provision. The statutes in force stipulate that the use of handcuffs is only allowed where a convicted person resists the special penitentiary office’s representative and/or disobeys his//her orders, endangers his/her own or another person’s life and limb, damages or attempts to damage property of the state or another person and/or there is a reasonable belief for any of the circumstances to arise. The Public Defender welcomes the aforementioned amendment and positively assesses it. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONS OF GEORGIA: • To ensure drafting an amendment to the Imprisonment Code providing the following issues and submitting of the amendment to the Government for its initiation in the Parliament: o The types of nonlethal weapons; o Prohibition of the use of tear gas indoors; and o Prohibition of the use of handcuffs for pinning down a person onto solid surface. 80 52 There were 15 cases of using handcuffs in establishment no. 2; 123 cases in establishment n. 3; 22 cases in establishment no. 6; 55 in establishment no. 8; 1 in establishment no. 15; and 3 in establishment no. 17. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CLOSED INSTITUTIONS