Minister of Corrections announces ‘revolutionary’ moves for prisoners’ rights

Georgia Ministry of Corrections and Probation is embracing best international standards concerning prisoners’ rights. 

The country’s Corrections Minister Kakhi Kakhishvili today announced two "revolutionary” advancements his Ministry planned to implement on behalf of inmates to ensure prisoners’ rights.

In particular, from next year the Public Defender’s Office will be able to take photos of inmates and their living conditions to show the environment the inmates’ lived in. 

We have already adopted the revolutionary regulation and Parliament confirmed it. Now we are working on the rules for the regulations and the photos will be used for a specific purpose and not for other, unreasonable purposes,” Kakhishvili said. 

Minister of Corrections Kakhi Kakhishvili spoke about the working rights of inmates. Photo by Ministry of Corrections webpage. 

The Minister said the Ombudsman’s representatives will be permitted to take photos of prisoners’ injures (if they exist) and all the facilities used by inmates – an act prohibited in previous years. 

On another note the Minister said his agency was working on developing regulations that would allow inmates with certain craftsmanship skills to work for various, outside prison institutions and earn a salary for their efforts. Their earnings would go onto a plastic card while they were incarcerated.

We also intend to launch a webpage where inmates can sell their products,” the Minister added. 

Kakhishvili noted the United States government, the European Union and the Council of Europe supported the Ministry in this direction.