money. Some convicts, considering their income, are able to make a contribution of only GEL 20 per month, but in some cases, the contribution of a cell reaches GEL 300-400. One of the convicts said that his cell collected GEL 200 every month and since he did not have finances, he was marginalized by other prisoners. Due to the above, order was ensured in the facilities visited during the monitoring mainly by informal rulers, especially in semi-open facilities. The imaginary order in the facilities is based on violent methods and is in fact very fragile, which in the long run, or even in the short run, may pose an extremely high threat to the lives and safety of prisoners. In recent years, two convicts, Levan Kortava and Giga Partenadze, died as a result of inter-prisoner conflict in Establishment No. 14. The semi-open establishments fail to prevent similar cases due to safety risk factors. At the same time, it should be noted that the increasing influence of informal governance resulted in the decrease in the number of applications sent to the Public Defender from semi-open facilities.94 In order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, it is important to tackle criminal subculture without using violent and repressive methods and without endangering the rights and safety of prisoners. High-risk facilities The management of high-risk facilities is still based on the principles of static security and implies maximum restrictions, prohibitions and unconditionally strict regime, which prevents positive changes in prisoners’ behavior, as well as their rehabilitation. Prisoners in high-risk facilities are idle in their cells for 23 hours and spend only one hour in the yard. In addition, some of the prisoners are in de facto isolation for months and years. Pursuant to the highrisk prison regulations,95 the director of the facility, based on the application of the untried/convicted person or on his/her own initiative, may make a decision to separate the untried/convicted person from other untried/convicted persons for not more than 30 days. If necessary, the duration of placement of a prisoner separately from others may be increased by the director for a reasonable period of time, until the danger for which the untried/convicted person was isolated from others is eliminated.96 Analysis of the above regulations shows that directors of penitentiary facilities are empowered to isolate prisoners and restrict their contact with other prisoners for an indefinite period of time on their own initiative. It should be noted that isolation of a prisoner for a long time may equal inhuman and degrading treatment. Consequently, the discretion given to the director to isolate a prisoner for an indefinite period of time increases the risks of ill-treatment assosciated with the use of this measure. 94 See the chapter on requests/complaints. Penitentiary Establishments Nos. 3, 6 and 7. 96 On Approval of the Statute of Penitentiary Establishment No. 3 of the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia, Article 25. 95 47