The Action Plan determines rather narrow scopes for the category of (vulnerable) prisoners with special needs. This factor is a significant shortcoming of the Action Plan. It does not imply representatives of ethnic or religious minorities or LGBTI+ community, or in general, those individuals who in the Georgian prisons are subjected to everyday bullying and discrimination against the background of the criminal underworld and informal rule becoming stronger.

We believe it to be imperative that, in future, when working on the issues of prisoners with special needs and vulnerable prisoners, the penitentiary authorities took into account the situation of those considered to be the “low-level” in the context of the criminal underworld and elaborate a specific strategy to eradicate or neutralise this problem. This would be a significant step towards the prevention of ill-treatment as well. 

Determining activity C 2.1[1] in the Strategy on the Development of the Penitentiary and Crime Prevention Systems and Action Plan for 2019–2020 (approved by the Minister of Justice of Georgia) can be considered as the first step in this direction. This activity implies the improvement of the mechanism against inter-prisoner violence. However, to ensure the appropriate implementation of this activity as well as draft legislative amendments concerning crime/organised crime committed in penitentiary establishments (activity C2.3), it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on the root causes of such crimes and inter-prisoner violence in general in the first place and to implement effective measures for their eradiation. This is not determined in any action plans.

[1]      Order no. 385 of the Minister of Justice of Georgia of 22 February 2019 on Approving the Strategy on the Development of the Penitentiary and Crime Prevention Systems and Action Plan for 2019–2020.