Georgian penitentiary system will no longer be staffed by military conscription
About 25 per cent of all conscripts typically serve in the Defence Ministry while the remaining 75 per cent serve in the Interior Ministry or in the country’s penitentiary system. Photo: Penitentiary Service press office.
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The Ministry of Justice has announced that the country’s penitentiary system will no longer be staffed with military conscripts.
Instead, guards and security forces will be hired on a contract basis.
The decision was announced today after a meeting between Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani and the head of Parliament’s Defence and Security Committee Irakli Sesiashvili.
Tsulukiani believes that the initiative will make the penitentiary system security service more attractive for youth.
We have agreed that the new system will be launched in prisons which are being constructed now, [there are three such facilities] and in the existing 15 prisons the system will be gradually introduced in the next few years”, Tsulukiani said.
Sesiashvili stated that the decision to transfer to a contract-based system will enable the government to have more skilled and dedicated forces in the defence and security fields.
The Ministry of Corrections was merged with Justice Ministry in 2017.
Georgia’s Ministry of Defence has explained the reasons to resume compulsory military conscription after it was abolished by ex-Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli in June 2016.
Compulsory military service at Georgia’s Defence Ministry will be restored but with some changes, announced Georgia’s Minister of Defence Levan Izoria today.
From today no Georgian citizen will be forced to serve in the army. This morning Georgia’s Minister of Defence Tinatin Khidasheli signed a document that abolished compulsory military service at Georgia’s Defence Ministry.
Young enthusiasts can now join the Georgian Armed Forces (GAF) on a professional contract-based service after admissions for the program were restarted today by the Ministry of Defence of Georgia following a three-year break.
The military police of Georgia’s Defence Ministry has detained two conscripts for alleged financial extortion and physical abuse of a recruit at the Krtsanisi training centre.
Nearly 800 employees in penitentiary facilities in Georgia will stay at their workplace after their shifts over the following weeks to ensure safety of inmates during the new coronavirus outbreak.
Georgia has handed over 101 Iranian prisoners who were serving their time in the country over to Iran as part of a repatriation effort amid the coronavirus pandemic.