is low. Therefore, the rehabilitation process in these establishments is unsatisfactory. In
2016, various activities were carried out in low risk prison facility no. 16; tournaments in
table tennis, football and volleyball, chess, and basketball were some of the activities that
were carried out. The convicts had the possibility to meet celebrities; watch numerous
movies, learn wood carving, playing guitar, doing clay work, cooking, painting, computers,
running a small business, hotel management, IT, and learn Georgian, English and German.
Apart from the above-mentioned, the convicts were involved in various psycho-social rehabilitation programmes such as preparation for release, development of cognitive and
social skills, human development in social environment, anger management and stress
management, everyday life risks and human resources, a step towards changes (understanding crime), etc.
Unfortunately, foreign prisoners of penitentiary establishments, due to linguistic barriers,
face difficulty in communication with personnel, including social workers and, therefore,
they are virtually unable to be involved in rehabilitation activities. While foreign prisoners
are offered to take the courses in learning Georgian language, such courses are not regularly conducted. For instance, the monitoring visits made to establishment no. 2 revealed
that foreign prisoners had not been informed at all about their right to participate in rehabilitation programmes.
ESTABLISHMENT
In his Parliamentary Report of 2015, the Public Defender recommended to the Minister of Corrections to take all the measures to ensure that diverse rehabilitation activities
are carried out in all penitentiary establishments. He also recommended promoting, to
a maximum degree, the social units of penitentiary establishments in planning and conducting various activities with adequate participation of prisoners; to ensure that when
planning such activities, the interests of prisoners are taken into account and the forms
of incentives should be used more often to ensure more involvement. Unfortunately, this
recommendation has not been fulfilled. As the result of the monitoring visits, it was found
out that the number of personnel in social units is still insufficient. 175176
Average Number
Number of
of Prisoners per
Social Workers
Year
Number of
Psychologists
Head of Unit
Composition of the
Social Service
No. 2
1 218
6
2
1
9175
No. 3
101
3
1
1
5
No. 5
266
7
2
1
11176
No. 6
209
10
3
1
14
No. 7
29
1
1
1
3
175 The table depicts the data as of December 2016; the composition of social units would change in the course
of the year.
176 One librarian is including in the staff of a social service.
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM (NPM), 2016
89
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