Outlawed Prisoners

Outlawed Prisoners

Prisoners are in very difficult and often intolerable conditions whilst in detention and further become the victims of extortion of money from so-called “thieves-in-law” but fear of repercussion prevents them from talking openly about it. The Public Defender’s Office believes that the prison administration and, first of all, the Director of the Penitentiary Department, Mr. Shota Kopadze, should be held responsible for all illegal activities within the prison.

“Prison still belongs to thieves” is the line that is oft quoted in the press as regards the current situation in the penitentiary system. The Public Defender’s Office has circulated information about money extortion from prisoners by legal thieves which is the divided between the prison administration and the prison thieves.

Mr. Goga Oniani, Representative of Pubic Defender, told the HRIDC about instances of money extortion from prisoners saying: ”There is an ‘inspector,’ or the representative of thieves, in every cell of every prison who collects money from prisoners and then passes it on to the ‘guard’ who in turn gives the money to the so-called ‘legal thieves.’ After the small part of this money is taken by the ‘guard,’ the rest of it is divided amongst the prison administration. As for the amount of money, it depends on the financial welfare and social position of the prisoner before his detention. As a result, the minimum amount is typically 50 lari but the maximum can be as much as 10 thousand dollars. The total amount of money exchanged each month is approximately 300 thousand lari.”

Today there is a total illegality in prisons and a syndrome of fear amongst the prisoners and so they avoid any conversations about their situation. They are confident that the representatives of the prison administration will not be able to protect them from the thieves and in case of insubordination he will be severely punished and for this reason  prisoners have to pay fixed amount of money every month. “What troubles me most of all is the fact that none of the prisoners is protected from the prison thieves which is admitted by representatives of prison administration in their private conversations. If a thief asks that a certain prisoner, for example, is taken to his prison cell, the prisoner in question will be taken to him or vice versa,” said Mr Oniani, the Representative of the Public Defender, “which confirms once more the fact that the prison administration is involved in this illegal activity.”

The Public Defender’s Office and NGOs are concerned about the situation in prisons and appeal to the governmental bodies for their active involvement. The Public Defender’s Office has sent recommendation to the Ministry of Justice requesting the dismissal of Shota Kopadze, the Chairman of the Penitentiary Department.

“When the chairman cannot or does not control the staff of the penitentiary system, then who commit crimes?  He must be punished at least by administrative sanctions,” stated Mr. Onani.

Nino Bestavashvili