Probation Agency Head highlights domestic system’s achievements at World Congress

Lado Kheladze, the Head of Georgia's National Agency for Crime Prevention, Enforcement of Non-Custodial Sentences and Probation, highlighted achievements of the domestic probation system at the sixth World Congress on Probation and Parole in the Netherlands last week.

Kheladze and Iason Nachkebia, the Head of Analytical Department of the Agency, introduced the Congress to “successful initiatives” implemented by the Agency in technology, rehabilitation and resocialisation, the body said on Monday.

The officials also discussed the innovative technology of PROBBOX - an orientation course for probationers - as a “unique rehabilitation opportunity” for low-risk probationers, and highlighted a crime prevention course for school teachers and its “national importance”.

Results in the development of the Juvenile Referral Centre and restorative justice were also noted by the representation.

The Agency said the Confederation of European Probation, a body committed to enhance the profile of probation and to improve professionalism on national and European levels, had also presented a study that dedicated a separate report to the Georgian probation system.

The report said the country’s system was “strongly developed” and credited “political will, strengthening of the legislative framework, strategy, consistency of reforms and continuous support of international partners” with the process, which it said had accelerated over the recent years.