Corrections Ministry announces new prison for young offenders

Georgia is planning to build a new juvenile detention facility for young offenders.

Today Georgia’s Acting Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili told Parliament that the Ministry of Corrections planned to build a new prison for young offenders aged 14-21 years, through the recommendation and support of the European Union (EU). 

The Acting official told lawmakers of the plans while he presented his mandatory report as a nominee of  Cabinet Minister. Now the legislative body must vote for a new Prime Minister and Cabinet in the new Government of Georgia. 

Kakhishvili said in many cases it was not appropriate or right to send a young person to an adult prison the moment they turned 18, and other ways of punishment were better for youth offenders.

He stressed the new detention facility would offer a range of programs that would support the young offenders to be rehabilitated and re-socialise easily when they left the penitentiary institution. 

Lawmakers listened to Acting Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili today. Photo by Ministry of Corrections' press office. 

When Kakhishvili made his report in front of Parliament, he also announced the Ministry of Corrections planned to offer a new form of pre-trial detention that would better serve offenders in Georgia. 

The Acting high official said only two forms of pre-trial detention were currently operating in Georgia; pre-trial detention or release on bail. 

Kakhishvili said the Ministry of Corrections intended to offer an alternative form – pre-trial probation - to Parliament for confirmation. 

 In other countries pre-trial probation is a court-approved agreement or contract between the prosecutor and defendant before a trial or a guilty plea. 

Under such an agreement, a defendant is placed on probation, in the care of a probation officer for a certain period of time and under certain conditions before he is convicted of any crime. Probation may be supervised or unsupervised.