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Hundreds of Prisoners Suffering: “Penitentiary Department Administration Malfeasance

September 4, 2008

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

In the timeframe, January 1st to September 1st of 2008, a total of 53 prisoners died in Georgian jails and prison hospitals, the Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice informs. The most common cause of death was mostly contributed to TB, severe cardiovascular insufficiency, complication of HIV/AIDS and other opportunist infections. The human rights protectors state prisoners' high death rate is a direct result of negligence on the part of prison administrations, as it has blindly turned eye to immediate medical need of prisoners.

Tamaz Nadirashvili, 38 a convict from Rustavi Prison had requested that the prison administration place him in prison hospital 4 months ago as he was rather ill. However, his appeal was ignored. The expertise of Neuro-surgical Department of Tbilisi Medical State University states that Nadirashvili condition deteriorated in prison. Tamaz Nadirashvili was convicted to a 5- year prison term for stealing scrap metal. Nevertheless, convicted person never admitted any guilt and always claimed that he had found the scrap metal on a dump.

Ilia Tarashvili, a prisoner from Tbilisi Prison # 8 have been requesting to allow his relatives to bring him inhalator and a walking stick. However, the administration was never satisfying his just need. Nino Andriashvili, lawyers of Human Rights Center and Tarashvili’s solicitor appealed to the head of the penitentiary institution with the request to allow his client to have an inhalator and cane in jail, but all efforts were vain. The prisoner suffers from an unhealed leg fracture. Tarashvili has also systemic tuberculosis and his lungs bleed constantly spitting up bloody mucus. His health condition continues to deteriorate on a daily basis.

We asked Levan Labauri, medical expert and the representative of the Public Defender of Georgia several questions regarding the health conditions of prisoners. We were interested to learn how prisoners are treated in jails. Is the situation there critical and what needs to be done to reduce the high mortality rate?

“The Office of Public Defender of Georgia has already prepared a detailed analysis of the contract # 523 dating October 26th, 2007 between Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and JSC Insurance Company Aldagi BCI. You can find answers to your questions in this specific document. However, the document was created for the Public Defender’s report to the Parliament of Georgia on the first half of 2008 which has not been published yet. On the whole, we can say that there are many items in the above-mentioned contract that infringe Georgian laws and international standards. There are also items that violate the Law of Georgia on the Rights of a Patient, the Law of Georgia on Healthcare and the Law of Georgia on Medical Work. Therefore, we can conclude that the patients’ rights are unprotected in prisons. As for medical service, it complies with the contract between Aldagi and Department.

-So Mr. Levan, you are saying that the situation in penitentiary institutions is critical.

-Based on current situation and the statistics, we can conclude that there is a widespread systemic crisis in Georgian prisons/medical institutions. Consquently, hundreds of prisoners die every year and the health conditions of thousands of prisoners are affected. There are three main reasons for the crisis: 1. Gaps in laws and especially in operational bylaws. 2. The incompetence of those people who plan and manage the system. 3. A lack of interest or will on the side of the government to change the system.

-Is it possible to decrease the death rate?

- Generally the death rate is affected by various factors: people’s age, level of nutrition, specific diet and living conditions. There are also issues as to the access to safe drinking water and the overall level of hygiene conditions; level of infective diseases, crime rates, conflicts, number of doctors and the quality of medical services.  The death rate will decrease if each of these components is improved. All responsibilities institutions and governmental bodies must unite and conduct joint research to fully evaluate the current situation and find an appropriate solution. We consider that the information on medical situation in prisons must be on a comparative level with the overall medical situation for all of Georgia, and then to make a comparative analysis in order to assess the death level and the reasons for prisoners’ death rate. Such an approach to the problem is necessary in order to evaluate the actual situation and find solutions.


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