Ministry of Corrections plans revolutionary changes to decrease prison terms
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Georgia’s Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili says that the ministry plans to carry out unprecedented reforms in 2018 to encourage employment in prisoners that will lead to a decrease of prison terms.
Kakhishvili told lawmakers today, prior to voting for a renewed Cabinet, that each working day for a prisoner may be equal to minus one day of their prison term.
It will be a revolutionary bill we will present it in 2018. All possible threats will be calculated. The bill will enable prisoners work and at the same time decrease their prison terms, based on an elaborated formula.
This will be a stimulus for them to think about employment and a better life when they leave the penitentiary institutions rather than about criminal activities,” Kakhishvili said.
We should offer alternative ways to prisoners to help them free themselves from criminal influences,” he added.
Kakhishvili said all the details of the planned changes, which category of inmates could be involved in the project and so on will become known to public in the near future.
The minister said his body was working on the project with the involvement of international donors and the final document will reflect the best foreign experience in the field.
The minister also announced plans about creating of new working facilities and enterprises in prisons.
For now various enterprises, bakeries, a sewing workshop and a wood workshop operate in prisons, where prisoners are employed and they receive salaries for their work.
Prisoners are also involved in agricultural activities and receive relevant incomes.
Several prisoners have the status of micro businessmen and their products are sold via www.online.moc.gov.ge. When their works are sold, money automatically comes to their private bank accounts.
The Georgian Parliamentary Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee approved of proposed changes to the Imprisonment Code aimed at improving the lives of convicts at its first hearing today.
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