according to the information received from the Special Penitentiary Office of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, from 1 January to 30 September 2018, 83 accused persons that were brought to penitentiary establishments sustained injuries during arrest and after arrest.43 At the same time, in penitentiary establishments, from 1 January 2018 until 30 September 2018, in terms of injuries documented to be found on accused and convicted persons, in 209 cases, injuries were inflicted by another person and in 74 cases, the origin of injuries could not be identified.44 Under the procedure of documenting injuries of accused/convicted persons, the suspicion of a healthcare professional concerning possible torture and other ill-treatment of the prisoner is the ground for registering injuries. Stemming from the fact that the criteria based on which a medical professional selects suspicious injuries are not determined by law, there is a risk that incidents of ill-treatment will not be identified fully and effectively. Therefore, it is necessary to statutorily determine guidelines for the criteria for selecting suspicious injuries by medical professionals. Under Article 2.2. of the Procedure of Documenting Injuries of Accused/Convicted Persons in the Penitentiary System, before the medical examination, a medical professional must obtain a patient’s informed consent. Under Article 2.5, an examination cannot be carried out without the informed consent of the patient. The CPT, in its report to the Government of Georgia concerning the visit to Georgia, carried out in 2018, recommended that the existing procedure needs to be amended so as to require using the “body charts” and taking photographs (and reporting this information) whenever prison doctors believe that there are grounds to suspect ill-treatment/inter-prisoner violence, irrespective of whether the prisoner alleged any ill-treatment, and agreed to such recording and reporting.45 2.3.2. LARGE PENITENTIARY ESTABLISHMENTS46 It is commendable that, following the Public Defender’s recommendation, the Ministry of Justice developed the strategy for dividing large penitentiary establishments into smaller facilities and setting up a balanced infrastructure.47 However, the Public Defender’s recommendation concerning addressing 43 Letter no. 32884/01 of the Special Penitentiary Office of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, dated 9 February 2019. 44 Letter no. 32884/01 of the Special Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, dated 9 February 2019. 45 Report to the Georgian Government on the visit to Georgia, carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 10 to 21 September 2018, (CPT/Inf (2019) 16), para. 80, available at: https://rm.coe.int/1680945eca, (accessed 15.05.19). 46 As of December 2018, the number of convicted persons in establishment no. 15 exceeded the limit by 373. As regards establishment no. 2, the number of convicts exceeded the limit for 9 months in 2018. 47 The Development Strategy for Penitentiary and Crime Prevention Systems and the Action Plan for 2019-2020 was approved by Order no. 385 of the Minister of Justice of Georgia of 22 February 2019 according to which one of the strategic goals of the order was the design and construction of new smaller facilities. 26