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Juveniles in Jails

March 25, 2015
 
Natia Gogolashvili

According to the data by December, 2014 there are 83 juvenile convicts/accused in the penitentiary establishments of Georgia that is 0.8% of the total amount of convicts in Georgia. According to the December, 2014 data, there are 36 accused and 47 convicted juveniles in Georgia; all of them are boys.

According to the information of the Penal Reform International [PRI], based on the offence categories the juveniles mostly commit crimes against others’ properties. As a rule, children are not sent to prison for the first fact of thievery; they take probation programs but there are cases when a child does not have a guardian and he repeatedly commits a crime.

In accordance to the Article 88 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, juveniles aging from 12 to 14 are sentenced to imprisonment only for grave or particularly grave crimes. Their term must not exceed 7 years. For juveniles of the age from 14 to 16 the maximum term for the crime is 15 years. Besides, prosecutor can use discretive authority with regard to the child and derive him from the criminal liability.

“15 years is maximum term that is unfairly high punishment for children. International standards rule that imprisonment terms can be used against children only in extreme cases and they must be short,” Tsira Tchanturia, regional director of the PRI said.

Deputy executive director of Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani positively evaluates the draft code on juvenile convicts that was prepared by the Ministry of Justice. The code comprises the norms regulating the liability of juveniles, administrative and criminal process, penitentiary and other issues. However, the bill is not in force yet.

“It is noteworthy that according to this code, specially trained judges will discuss cases of juveniles. There are several significant amendments in the code: imprisonment term is not used against juveniles for less grave crimes. Maximum imprisonment term for the particularly grave crimes will be between 10 and 15 years. In relation to this factor it is desired to have more liberal approach. According to the draft code, after serving the term, criminal record will be automatically removed from juveniles that is also very important. However, if juvenile commits repeated crime, the court will take previous criminal record into account when discussing the new charge. Besides, if there is an episode where juvenile commits crime together with grown up, the court will separately discuss juvenile’s case that did not happen before,” Tamar Avaliani said.

Juvenile convicts are placed in the Prison # 11; accused juveniles are in special facilities of Prison # 8 and # 2.

In accordance to the Rule 8 subparagraph “e” of the Standard Minimal Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners Young prisoners shall be kept separate from adults. However, regional director of the PRI said juveniles have contact with adults in Kutaisi Prison # 2 and in Tbilisi Prison # 8. “Both international standards and our recommendations request to place juveniles in separate facility to protect them from possible negative influence. For example, convicts working in the economic unit of the facility give food to the juveniles. So, there are doubts that convicts, with so called criminal mentality also have contact with juveniles,” Tsira Tchanturia said.

Public Defender of Georgia also pays particular attention to the contact between juvenile and adult convicts in his 2013 Parliamentary Report. “In the course of monitoring, trustees of the Public Defender have found that juvenile remand prisoners and adult sentenced prisoner were able to contact each other, in the Penitentiary Institutions Nos. 8 and 2. The monitoring showed the conditions of juveniles at the Penitentiary Institution No. 8 are not satisfactory. It turned out that juveniles have contact with adult prisoners. In particular, this opportunity emerges either when the prisoners are transferred to the court or during their visits to the dentist when they have to go to the medical unit.”

On November 27-28, 2014 National Prevention Mechanism of the Public Defender of Georgia paid visit to the Prison # 8 wherr trustees examined the facility of juvenile convicts. There were 25 convicts in the building. According to the monitoring group’s evaluation, conditions of juvenile prisoners are not satisfactory. 

“Ventilation system does not work properly. Sanitary-hygiene conditions in the cells are not satisfactory. There are insects in the facility. Inmates have problems of being on fresh air. Little space for the strolls of juvenile convicts is surrounded with high walls and there is an iron net over it. There is one tennis table in it. Juvenile convicts do not have necessary conditions for training and full recreation. Due to the aforementioned conditions, juvenile convicts often complain about restricted right to have walks in fresh air,” the report of the NPM reads.

According to the Public Defender’s Office, inmates of prison # 11 cannot get newspapers. There is no shop where inmates could buy magazines and newspapers or other publications.

There are some problems in the field of education. General educational process in prison # 11 is conducted in accordance to the standards of civil sector. It means, the prison school is adjacent to the Tbilisi Public School # 123. Consequently, juveniles can take ordinary school certificates which will not state that person received secondary education in prison. 

Tsira Tchanturia said there is problem in terms of education too because school program does not meet their needs. She said the juvenile convicts are of different ages and they require individual approaches. Besides, they do not receive education notification documents.

Public Defender also negatively evaluates the education of juvenile convicts. He recommends to the state to take measures to ensure non-stop educational process for them.

“Since the second half of 2012, institution no. 8 of Tbilisi and institution no. 2 of Kutaisi have been offering learning opportunities for the underage accused. It is, however, a negative fact that neither the general nor complete education received during the stay at the institutions can serve as a basis for issuing a school certificate. In practice, the accused minors often have to stay in institutions for nine months (maximum term). Furthermore, there are cases where minors need to be transferred from institution no. 11 to institution no. 8 or no.2 for convicted persons. As the result, minors are deprived of the possibility to receive education for a long period,” 2013 Parliamentary Report of the Public Defender reads.

According to the information of the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia, in December, 2014, 322 resocialization programs (ongoing/finished) for convicted/accused juveniles (among them 31 programs were implemented in prison # 2; 29 programs in prison # 8 and 262 programs in prison # 11). As for the programs itself, they were: 8 –retraining programs; 32 – psycho-social rehabilitation programs; 43 – vocational training; 11 – art-therapy; 76 – general education; 46 – handicraft trainings; 17 – sport and 89 – cultural events.

“In all three institutions, social services are rather actively involved in the process of re-socialisation of minors. There is an individual plan of serving a punishment for each minor. It should be also mentioned that often these plans are more formal than real. Moreover, the social services have rather meager resources for re-socialisation, especially in institutions nos. 2 and 8. There is practically no systematic and unified programme of re-socialisation, and no planning of leisure time. As the result, the minors spend most of their time in their cells,” the Public Defender’s Report reads.

Human Rights Center has started project - Monitoring Conditions of Juvenile and Female Prisoners in Georgian Penitentiary. The project aims to reveal problems existing in prisons for female and juvenile convicts and promoting improvement of imprisonment conditions. In the frameworks of the project, in partnership with Office of Public Defender of Georgia, monitors of Human Rights Center will make scheduled and unscheduled visits to the female and juvenile prison facilities. Monitoring will be conducted in Rustavi #5 female and Tbilisi #11 juvenile prisons.

Human Rights Center offers free legal aid for the breached rights of women and juvenile prisoners. Please call hotline numbers: 2 38 46 48; 2 45 45 33.

This article was published within the frameworks of the project Monitoring State of Women and Juvenile Prisoners in Georgia which is implemented by Human Rights Center in partnership with Office of Public Defender of Georgia, by the financial support of Embassy of Bulgaria.
The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the donor. Human Rights Center bears sole responsibility for the content of the report.

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