underlined that the Georgian legislation does not promulgate specific approaches required for the resocialisation and reintegration of life sentenced prisoners. Therefore,
there is no practice of developing individual action plans and set of indicators for inmates
sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the recommendation of the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe, the member states must ensure that individual plans
are developed for life sentenced and long-term prisoners.221
In 2014, the Public Defender has recommended the Ministry of Corrections to ensure
the individual plans of serving the sentence to the inmates sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the response received from the Ministry, implementation of the
individual planning has started in the penitentiary system. If the classification of convicts
and the individual planning of serving the sentence starts in accordance with the danger
risks, the plan will be implemented equally, according to the risks based on behavior and
not on the term of the sentence.
According to Article 64 of the Imprisonment Code of Georgia, the prisoner is serving a
life sentence in the closed establishment. It is important that life sentenced prisoners,
under the relevant supervision, have communication with their families and friends with
regular intervals both in writing and visits. The Georgian Imprisonment Code provides
rules that life sentence prisoners have the right to 2 long-term visits annually and the
possibility of 2 more long-term visits as an incentive.222 As stated by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in its report,223 the number of visits should not
depend on the type of the facility or the crime committed. It is important to allow the
life sentenced prisoners more short and long term visits, which will support the maintenance of close ties with the family members and rehabilitation.
It is worth noting that in some of the institutions of the penitentiary department there is
no adequate infrastructure for the long-term visits and prisoners are transported to the
other facilities. However, there were cases when the requests for long-term visits were
turned down because of the infrastructural problems.224
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONS OF GEORGIA:
• Develop action plans tailored on individual life sentenced prisoners for their
resocialisation and reintegration in the society;
221 Recommendation (2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on European Rules for
Prison (adopted on January 11, 2006 by the Committee of Ministers). Available at: http://www.
ombudsman.ge/uploads/other/1/1225.pdf [Last Visited on 17.03.2016].
222 Article 65(1)(d) of the Imprisonment Code of Georgia.
223 Visit of the the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to Georgia, CPT/Inf (2015) Available at: http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/geo/2015-42-inf-eng.pdf [Last Visited on 14.03.2016].
224 The above is discussed in details in the chapter dedicated to the Contact with the Outside
World.
142
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM (NPM), 2015
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