Corrections Ministry plans to ask for tax privileges for businesses that open enterprises in prisons
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Georgia’s Ministry of Corrections intends to ask parliament to award tax privileges and other allowances to businesses that open enterprises in prisons.
The initiative will be reviewed within the scope of a bill currently being drafted by the ministry, which envisages the employment of inmates in return for decreased jail time.
Based on the new bill, every day of work will subtract one day from a prisoner’s overall sentence. This, the ministry hopes, will increase the motivation of prisoners to work, earn money and re-socialize easily when they leave penitentiary facilities.
Now businesses have no motivation to open enterprises in prisons and we need to encourage them. If businesses receive tax benefits they will be motivated to enter prisons and open enterprises there,” the head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Corrections Aleksandre Darakhvelidze stated.
Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili announced about the "revolutionary changes" in December 2017. Photo from the Ministry of Corrections' press office.
He said that to further interest attract the attention of businesses, the ministry will directly purchase products made in prisons that will be useful and necessary for the prison system.
Darakhvelidze also said that the ministry will take into consideration the qualifications of prisoners which will enable companies to employ certain individuals outside of the prison.
Darakhvelidze stated that low-risk prisoners will have higher chances of employment and thus commuted prison terms.
If a prisoner obeys rules, gets involved in our rehabilitative and social programs, they will have more chances to be employed. There are also prisoners who belong to the high-risk groups...If prisoners who are placed separately from other inmates will not change their behaviours, they will have a lower chance of being employed in prison”, Darakhvelidze said.
The ministry plans to present the bill in parliament during this year’s spring session.
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.
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