Drug Addiction in Prison but “Tip of Iceberg”

Boiled toilet-paper with injected-drugs will always be delivered to prison

What is done to support the drug habit at penitentiary establishments?

Eka Kevanishvili, Tbilisi

“Drugs were sent to the prison in packages of food. Sometimes they conceal drugs in food or in some other substances. In most occasions I have witnessed that narcotics were delivered to such establishment with the help of toilet-papers. The paper is imbued with the illegal substance and then inmates just boil the paper to extract the substance,” said former prisoner. No more comments are necessary to describe how things work. It is an illusion to think that prisons are drug free. All those close to the subject know that is actually the case in Georgian prisons. The situation is about the same in almost every penitentiary establishment anywhere in the world. However, the problem of drug addiction is fought against with a range of different methods in various countries. In our country drug-addiction is not considered an illness but rather a criminal act and that is how the problem is addressed.

According to 2007 data there were 18,310 prisoners in Georgia. Nobody knows exact percentage of drug addicts that can be counted among them. Based on separate data, non-governmental organizations give approximately the same figures. “On average, only 9-10 % of them might be active drug addicts. However, such a figure is but an assumption. Nearly 67 % of prisoners and former prisoners have tried narcotics at least once not only in prison but outside it too,” said Giorgi Lomidze, social worker for the non-governmental organization “Tanadgoma”.

“Lots of people are serving out their terms for the possession or sale of drugs. Many of them are drug-addicts and because of that they eave health problems,” said Salome Makharadze, PR Manager of the Penitentiary Department.

Irakli V., who has personally witnessed how prisoners boiled toilet-paper, recalls that the total number of drug-addicts is sizeable in Georgian penitentiary establishments. “Everybody who was a drug addict was arrested... Besides that, there are also those serving time because police planted drugs on them to find some reason for their ultimate detention. Mostly, it was easier to blame those persons who were known as drug-addicts than others.”

I have not seen any person who could not tolerate life without using narcotics. Many of them can spend months without narcotics perfectly and they mostly like not being hooked on drugs. They really want to kick such a bad habit. But if drug appears in prison nobody refuses to inject it. It is only natural for someone to do this is order to tolerate life in prison, and this is especially the case if that person is an actual drug addict.”

As far as I know conditions for such behavior are not found at a new prison in the Gldani district, Tbilisi. I served my term in Ortachala Jail (Tbilisi) and it happened there. Now that prison has been destroyed and I think such situation might be usual in most prisons. Inmates are able to inject at any moment they wish because supervision is not constant. The most commonly used drug is Subotex.”

Whoever we asked how many drug-addicts are in prisons nobody is able to give an exact reply. Moreover, the same applies for those who are not within the prison system but in the general public. “Nearly 250 thousand drug-addicts live in Georgia,” it was the statistics that was announced short time ago at the meeting where the draft-law on drug-addiction was being discussed. If we would consider that the entire family stands behind each drug addict we will understand just how expansive is the number of impacted persons. Another problem is to obtain drugs and then send it to your relative to prison through illegal methods.

Nana Kakabadze, the head of the “Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights”, has been traditionally critical and states that providing drugs to those in prison is much easier today than ever before when Kote Kemularia was minister of justice.

“Kote Kemularia was minister of the same government but the situation was much more restricted during his governing than it is now when Bacho Akhalaia is the head of the Penitentiary Department. It is clear that drug-addiction is a profitable business and some of governmental officials are making money off of it. Addicted prisoners are threatened and blackmailed with cutting the drug-supply if … and the prison administration supplies inmates with drugs. Short time ago a prisoner died in the woman custody because of over-doze or tainted drug. Another inmate was poisoned and these facts were widely discussed. Moreover, there are some other incidents that are currently not known to the society. Nonetheless, we can state that the process is more widespread than ever before.

The only option to improve the situation is connected with monitoring in prisons. The most important issue is that the prison administration must not be eager to become involve with drug dealing. Every employee of the prison who is tied up with this business must be punished. This is especially true for those who are getting the drugs into the prison establishments.  The government should not support such activities.”

Salome Makharadze categorically contradicts the statement of Manana Kakabadze; she said that situation is not so critical in actuality in Georgian prisons it has been claimed above. “The problem do exists in prison bit it is not as bad as it was two years ago. Narcotics are not so easily smuggled into prisons these days. Many employees of the prison were punished, which happens on a daily basis.  I had to inform the society about the detention of a nurse, doctor who was accused for having taken narcotics into the prison. There is plenty of court decision to support claims that people are being caught and punished. The control over such activities has succeeded and the situation has been improved.”

Representatives of the “Tanadgoma” visit penitentiary establishments twice a week; though within another program that aims on examining prisoners on HIV/AIDS. Giorgi Lomidze said that we find drugs in prisons. This problem can be resolved by using different methods. Detention of several employees and their punishment cannot resolve the problem alone “There is a concept-reduction of damage that means to replace the addiction with therapy, etc. Law enforcers and medical personnel should work together to be involved in the process. Unfortunately, however, medical issues are mostly ignored these days. If we consider a drug-addict as a sick person, than we should treat his/her with different methods. However, if we think that they are a criminal, which is currently the case within Georgian society, than the problem will not be so easily resolved.”

Aleksi Shoshikelashvili, director of the Project of Monitoring the Protection of Drug-Addicts, shares the same opinion. “Law enforcers boast for their fight with drug-dealers. When looking at real statistics it becomes evident that these people are actually drug-addicts. The ones that are the true criminals are not even arrested. It is the police that are cooperates with drug dealers and tied up with this business. It is Mafia that is not touched by governmental structures. It would be impossible to work otherwise, as such a crime relies on the state agencies-parliament and law enforcement bodies working together”

What is done in prison against drug-addiction? Almost nothing, if we do not consider several psycho-social rehabilitation centers that opened back in 2005. Thus far neither has the penitentiary department nor foreign donors estimated the efficiency of their activities and how effective they are; initially donors funded this program, which is the so-called “12 step” plan.

Eliso Amirejibi, who represents women’s club “Peon” and she and her organization entered the prison within that program, heard about the program in Warsaw at Human Rights high school. She saw rehabilitation centers there and in Georgia she was the first person who attempted to open such centers in 2002. However, the situation was terrible here. “There was only one narcological institute which treated drug-addiction and used traditional methods. They only used medicines in the treatment. There was such dogma in our society that psycho-rehabilitation centers could not work in Georgia but we were persuading everybody that we should try. The methodology was not based only on psychology and consultant who is former drug-addict; but the main point was spirit that is more or less common for every religion. And it works even in America, where people of many different confessions live. It works in Muslim and the Catholic world as well. We also decided to try similar method in close cooperation with an institution and we entered the women’s prison in 2005 where 65 % of inmates were convicted for narcotics. Some of them were dealers what is closely connected with drug-addiction. However, many of them not hide the fact that they were addicted too….

Initially they did not trust us, as they faced the problem of addiction. We worked hard to overcome and set them free from their addiction. The center has been working for four years already. Beneficiaries are taking psycho-rehabilitation program permanently; they attend meetings which are sometimes open sometimes closed; we have much progress.”

Eliso Amirejibi says that the program assisted many prisoners to change their attitude towards drugs. Now they are fighting the problem head-on.  Another place where drug-addicts can be assisted is Transfiguration Church where rehabilitation center “Tabori” assists addicts within the program “12 Steps.” The Georgian Patriarchate has supported the center already now for many years.

Eliso Amirejibi stated that it is the only program which assists drug-addict prisoners. Today the program is no longer financed and donors have not decided if they would do so in the future.

Penitentiary Department has opened a similar center for 12 inmates at the Rustavi Prison # 6; the center still works and participation in the program is strictly voluntary. 12 people tried to take the four-month course and eight of them were successful. Makharadze stated that if the center succeeds the funding might increase and more prisoners will be able to take the course. “These people live healthy life all 12 hours a day; they watch films, train, and talk – they even have their own personal psychologists.”

The center is designed for 12 beneficiaries but when there are 18 000 prisoners in the country it can be hardly expected that the situation can be improved – even if the pilot program worked perfectly. It is simple logic. Experts state that the state should initially decide whether drug-addiction is illness or a grave crime.