In July of last year there was adopted the Law on Imprisonment (one of the recommendations of the Council of Europe), according to this law from January 2000 from all the institutions of execution of punishments only preliminary detention facilities remained under the subordination of the Ministry of Interior. According to Georgian legislation preliminary detention should not accede 72 hours, after this time period a detainee should be released or arrested if the judge issues an order.
It needs to be admitted that this change is an important step in the formation of the civil society. In isolators the prisoners are no longer tortured, as there they are under the subordination of the Ministry of Justice a public institution that has no interest and gain in torturing and abuse. During our meeting in Yerevan we were given the opportunity to find out the conditions of the penitential system in Armenia, Azeri colleagues brought a documentary concerning their prisons -- from all these materials it is not difficult to assume that problems are the same. Thus, comments made about penitential system of Georgia concern also Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In investigational cells as well as in institutions of execution of punishments convicts face difficult living conditions. They all can improve this reality if they pay a bribe to the administration of these institutions. One such example is moving a convict in prison's hospital. One has to pay for the move and then monthly "fee" for keeping him/her there. It is interesting that as a rule the real health condition of a convict plays a minor role.
The goal of torture and ill treatment of detainees in the police departments (preliminary detention cameras) is not to uncover the crime but to gain an "openhearted" confession that would give law enforcement employees enough tools for trading with the family of a detainee (such as mitigation of accusation, alteration of indictment, etc.). The main problem of penitential systems of Transcaucasian countries is the priority of unwritten laws over the official legislation.
For the time being there are only 11 institutions of execution of punishment in Georgian penitential system, among them one is for prisoners who suffer from tuberculosis, also in Tbilisi there is a treatment institution for 350 prisoners (republic hospital), in this hospital there are treated convicts as well as detainees. This institution is foreseen for 11285 people. Besides there are 4 investigational isolators in Georgia (in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi and Zugdidi), they together are foreseen for 3 465 convicts. According to official data there were 8 779 detainees there by the end of May (1887 out of the 8 779 are under investigation).
Despite the fact that Georgian penitential system is suffering from serious material and technical shortages many problems still can be solved within the given resources if there is created an appropriate legislative basis and the society take active part in monitoring of all of this. As an example, we would like to refer to the experience of Georgian penitential system and recommendations of the European Council, the former has ignored many of the latter's recommendations such as:
a) In every place of detainment or imprisonment there have to be placed parts of Georgian legislation that define the rights of convicts.
b) There have to be replaced iron blinds that hold sunlight with lattices.
c) There have to be created educational programs for institutions of execution of punishments.
d) There have to be created a special educational institution for training the staff of institutions of execution of punishments.
e) There have to be renamed investigational isolators to investigation centers.
Following recommendations require certain changes in legislation and finances; they were also given by the experts of the European Council and are still ignored:
a) Deprive Procuracy the right to be the observer of the execution of punishments and instead give this right to an independent body.
b) Regimes of execution have to be defined by the administration of institutions of execution of punishments and not by courts.
c) Detainees who are under investigation have to have right to meet their
family members up to their own desire and not of investigator's one.
d) Convict has to have the right to complain about the regime of his/her execution to the Ombudsman of Georgia.
e) Sanitarian and hygienic conditions have to be improved in places of execution of punishments.
Georgian legislation provides us with grounds to make some of these changes possible and when the civil control is strengthened and effective utilization of legislative mechanisms occur real results could be achieved in this field especially from prisoners' rights protection viewpoint. However, people in charge of the penitential system are striving to make the activities of Public Commission with NGO participation very formal. Creation of such a commission is foreseen according to the Law on Imprisonment.
It is important to mention that it is very dangerous and vital for the Transcaucasian countries when their peoples have no authority to reelect governments through free and fair elections. Since the formation of these countries there was not a case when government was changed through free and fair elections. Whoever possesses power uses all the possible methods to maintain this power during and after elections. This is very alerting and gives rise to ungoverned processes in the society. In these conditions it is very desirable that NGOs take active part in the process of elections and play the role of independent arbiters and monitors. Several attempts of this type were made, there are NGOs that specialize in elections, however, the results show us that the third sector doesn't have enough power to have real impact on elections as well as on the final outcome.
The principle of equality of the citizens to the law is not protected in any of the Transcaucasian countries. That is why local NGOs need to be more active in the monitoring of judiciary system. The situation is quite specific in this field as independent judges react very painfully on every critical comment, but without transparent judiciary there is no sense in trying defeating corruption and ensuring rule of law. It is believed that judiciary reform was successful in Georgia, and in many ways it is really so, but if the current situation continues and judges do not receive salaries for several months the old times will return and not only expression judiciary reform but the term "reform" itself would be discredited for good.