142 former prisoners receive business grants from Justice Ministry
Success stories have encouraged the Justice Ministry to continue its grant program to help former inmates.Photo: Crime Prevention Centre press office.
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The Georgian Justice Ministry, with the partnership of the charity Apkhazeti, has allocated funds for 142 former prisoners between 2013 and 2019 to help them start businesses.
In 2019 alone, 34 small business ideas have been funded”, the Justice Ministry reported today.
The rehabilitation and re-socialisation programme for former prisoners was launched at the end of 2012.
The goal of the programme is to help former prisoners start new lives, have a stable income and decrease chances for repeated crimes and provide assistance to former inmates to overcome psychological problems.
The Georgian Goju-ryu [the main traditional Okinawan style] karate and the basketball federations have gotten involved in a project of the Georgian Justice Ministry which aims to help juvenile convicts in three prisons of Georgia gain new skills.
The Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani has evaluated the outcomes of a rehabilitation program initiated by her five years ago, titled Rehabilitation and Resocialization Program for Former Prisoners.
Georgia’s Ministry of Corrections intends to ask parliament to award tax privileges and other allowances to businesses that open enterprises in prisons.
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.
Former prisoners and minor convicts will undergo a de-tattooing programme per an agreement between Georgia’s Justice Ministry and Charity Center Abkhazeti.
Flowers grown in the 16th prison of Rustavi in eastern Georgia by convicts will be sold during a flower festival on the Independence Day of Georgia on May 26.
A prisoners employment project has been launched at Gldani prison and inmates planted three species of raspberry and sowed beans at a land plot especially allocated for the work.
Inmates in Gldani #8 prison, in the outskirts of Tbilisi, have harvested beans, greens, cucumbers, tomatoes and raspberries to sell them and receive income.
For the first time in Georgia prisoners will be employed in public service and receive income from the state budget.