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.