No end in sight for Georgia's prison blues

John Mackedon 2/22/06

The publication of two human rights reports and recent riots at two Georgian prisons have underscored the ongoing crisis facing Georgia's crumbling penitentiary system. Despite the criticism, the government maintains that it has made progress on penal reform. But some local observers dismiss the steps taken since the 2003 Rose Revolution as primarily designed to ease international pressure on Georgia, while others argue that the initiatives have only worsened the situation.

A recent report by Amnesty International, Georgia: Torture and Ill-Treatment – Still a Concern After the Rose Revolution, highlighted many of the abuses. Acts of torture at detention centers include electric shock, cigarette and candle burns and placing gun barrels in the mouths of detainees and threatening to fire. Prosecutions of suspected instigators have lagged or failed to materialize, while detainee victims often opt for silence rather than inform prison officials and face likely reprisals, the report claimed.

At a February 2 presentation of the report in Tbilisi, Amnesty International representatives stressed the need for the government to renew a national action plan on penal reform, which expired at the end of 2005. However, they also noted that the government has already been taking steps in the right direction.

The report identifies "extensive" prison monitoring performed under the aegis of the public defender's office, various legal amendments and the incarceration of 10 individuals charged with torture or physical abuse of prisoners as among the successes for penal reform since the 2003 Rose Revolution.

"We get the impression that the recommendations by international organizations are being taken seriously by the authorities," said Nicola Duckworth, director of Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia Programme. "But it is one thing to talk about reforms and another thing to actually implement them."

Controversy mars some of the positive developments cited by Amnesty International. A new 21-member prison monitoring council, formed in August 2004, was supposed to submit quarterly reports to the Justice Ministry and bi-annual reports to the president concerning conditions in Georgia's prison system. The absence of council representatives from several human rights organizations that have criticized President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration, however, has prompted charges that the government never intended the council to act as a true advocate for reform.

"This council was a very ineffective tool," commented Human Rights Information & Documentation Center Executive Director Usha Nanuashvili, "[President] Saakashvili is just playing a political game. He's saying ‘Look at this independent council,' but this was just a show for the international community."

One council member disagrees. "This criticism may be partially fair," conceded Keti Kamashidze, a lawyer for Article 42 of the Constitution, a human rights advocacy non-governmental organization (NGO). "Not everyone [on the council] has been actively involved [in penal reform] and some individuals who were left off the list may have been. But, overall, I think we have been effective." At the same time, Kamashidze concedes that much work remains.

A report published in January by the Georgian NGO Human Rights Information & Documentation Center (HRIDC) sheds additional light on prison problems, describing living conditions in most of the country's 16 detention facilities as inhumane. For example, the report says a cell designed for 12 inmates may hold as many as 34, with prisoners forced to sleep in shifts. Healthy prisoners are also often housed with those who suffer from tuberculosis or hepatitis-C; prisoners who are ill are generally kept at the prison colony and denied proper medical attention. Last year, Georgia budgeted 23 lari ($13) per month for the care of each of 6,000 prisoners. But since there are actually over 9,000 prisoners in Georgia, this monthly sum amounted to just 15 lari ($8) per person. A mere one lari ($0.55) was set aside per prisoner for monthly medical care. Overall, the state budget included 138,000 lari, or some $77,000, for the care of inmates.

"There is not even a minimum standard of living in the prisons," commented the HRIDC's Ucha Nanuashvili. "I'm not talking about proper health care. I'm talking about beds."

While Nanuashvili conceded that conditions in juvenile centers and detention facilities for women prisoners have improved under President Saakashvili, he maintained that "most of the facilities are in terrible condition."

In April 2005, Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subari sacked the Ministry of Justice's penitentiary department boss, Shota Kopadze for allegedly failing to take action to improve living conditions in Georgia's detention facilities.

But little apparently has changed. In the past two months, prison riots have occurred in two of Georgia's largest cities. In December, prisoners in a new facility outside of Kutaisi in western Georgia staged a protest about the prison's lack of heat and water within one day of its opening. In late January, fights broke out between police and prisoners during a cell search in a penitentiary in Rustavi, in southern Georgia, Relatives of the prisoners claimed that inmates are routinely subjected to brutal beatings.

Government officials argued that organized crime groups' dissatisfaction with penal reforms motivated the December riot. The online news service Civil Georgia reported Deputy Justice Minister Givi Mikanadze as saying that the Kutaisi uprising "was caused by reform being implemented in the penitentiary system, which appeared unacceptable for certain circles. I want to say that we will not turn off [stop] the reform strategy."

Human rights observers contend that penal reform ultimately comes down to a question of the government's will. "If the government possessed the will, they could improve this situation. They have the money," said Nanuashvili. "The government is not interested in admitting acts of torture, they are afraid of outside political pressure."

Article 42 of the Constitution's Keti Kamashidze agrees with Nanuashvili. "I think that our government has more than enough support from the international community and more than enough financial and human resources to implement any reforms they want. Reforms in this particular sphere are not profitable for the government, so the government does not have the will to implement them," Kamashidze said.

To date, the government has not officially responded to the reports from either Amnesty International or HRIDC. Attempts by EurasiaNet to contact government officials for comments on Georgia's prison reform program were not successful.

Editor's Note: John Mackedon is a Tbilisi-based writer who works for the online publication Civil Georgia.