Council of Europe calls on Georgian authorities to stop violence in prisons

In Georgia, in connection with the lack of warders, the administrations of a number of penitentiary institutions rely on informal hierarchies among prisoners and as a result, prisoners at the bottom of the informal hierarchy are left unprotected, the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) reports.

Delegates of the Council of Europe CPT, who visited Georgia in September 2018, did not register any cases of ill treatment of prisoners in the penitentiary institutions and SIZOs (pre-trial prisons) visited by them, notes the report prepared by the Council of Europe CPT.

Meanwhile, the CPT called on the Georgian authorities to immediately solve the problem of violence among prisoners, aggravated by the presence of informal hierarchy systems in prisons. The administration of one of the prisons acknowledged that, because of the lack of warders, they cooperated with reputable prisoners, so called "watching prisoners," and thereby subjected to risk of the violence and intimidation those prisoners who were at the bottom of the informal hierarchy. The "watching prisoners" live in much more comfortable conditions and enjoy a number of privileges, which is unacceptable, emphasizes the CPT's report. The Council of Europe CPT expresses its concern over the fact that similar practice may extend to the entire prison system of the country.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 11, 2019 at 09:40 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.