Recommendation of the Public Defender of Georgia to the Minister of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance

In accordance with article 21 (b) of the Organic Law on Public Defender of Georgia, Public Defender of Georgia has addressed the Minister of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance of Georgia with the recommendation to ensure access to TVs and television transmissions to all individuals held in the penitentiary institutions.
 
Several Reports of Public Defender of Georgia outline that it is particularly unacceptable to prohibit TVs in closed types of institutions, where prisoners spend minimum 23 hours per day in cells and are not occupied with any activity. On numerous cases, Public Defender has addressed the Minister of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance of Georgia in order to ensure the access to TVs and television transmissions in all penitentiary institutions.
 
This problem has been solved in the majority of the institutions lately; however prisoners in Institutions #7 and #9 are still deprived of the possibility to exploit TVs and to watch news.

On December 21st, 2012 prisoner Bachana Akhalaia’s lawyer addressed Public Defender with an application, where he stated, that despite his several requests B. Akhalaia is still deprived of the possibility to watch TV in order to gain information. On December 27th, 2012 employees of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring of the Office of Public Defender of Georgia visited penitentiary institution #9. During the visit they found out that prisoners still lack the possibility of having a TV in the closed part of the Institution. Prisoners Bachana Akhalaia, Irakli Okruashvili and Ioseb Giguashvili have TVs, which are connected to the DVD. The administration of the Institution turns on the movies for them from 12 p.m. to 22 p.m.
 
On December 4th, 2012 members of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring carried out monitoring in penitentiary institution #7 of Tbilisi. It turned out that convicts still have no access to TVs (TVs in cells are connected to DVDs and prisoners have the possibility to watch only CDs with educational and entertainment programs provided by their families. In addition, everyone watches one and the same recording).
 
Due to the fact that only prisoners of Institutions #7 and #9 lack the possibility to have access to television transmissions, it should be stated that they are held in unequal and discriminatory conditions. This is contrary to the European Prison Rules, according to which prisoners should have access to TV programs and every restriction should be subject to individual justification. According to the Rule 24.10 “Prisoners shall be allowed to keep themselves informed regularly of public affairs by subscribing to and reading newspapers, periodicals and other publications and by listening to radio or television transmissions unless there is a specific prohibition for a specified period by a judicial authority in an individual case”.

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