Address of Human Rights Center about the Problems of Prisoners with Disabilities

Human Rights Center believes that the Ministry of Corrections sometimes groundlessly delays delivery of the prisoners with obvious disability conditions to the relevant medical centers and does not provide them with wheelchairs. There are cases when the prisoners with disabilities do not take adequate medical treatment and service. 

Human Rights Center processes several cases where the inmates of penitentiary establishments cannot get timely medical services and treatment and in some cases they are refused to get medical service/treatment or be delivered to medical units at all. These problems are particularly acute in the case of the prisoners with disabilities.

Convicted Lasha M. serves his term in Prison # 17, who is wheelchair-user because of the injuries he received as a result of torture and inhuman treatment in prison. He needs second surgical operation on the spine and other medical analysis. On July 8, the prisoner was to be taken to the medical center by a paramedic car, transportation by which could be less painful for him. However, based on the decision of the Prison # 17 doctor, the prisoner was to be transported by an ordinary vehicle and the disabled person had to refuse to go to hospital. 

Despite many appeals of Human Rights Center, the medical department of the Ministry of Corrections does not use paramedic cars by which the sick prisoners could be transported with less discomfort. Article 19 Paragraph 2 of the Decree 149 of the Minister of Corrections dated by October 19, 2015 states that prisoners shall be transported by the mean of transport which will not degrade or torture the prisoner. 

Convicted Davit G in Prison # 6 has several grave diseases. Relevant medical documentation was submitted to the medical department of the Ministry of Corrections but he is not yet delivered to the jail hospital # 18. The prisoner cannot move and control balance; he has cirrhosis, Hepatitis C and B, HCV infection, and others.

Convicted Lasha Sh. from Prison # 8 cannot move independently because of several grave diseases. He cannot take care of himself. Despite many appeals and physical need, the prisoner has not yet received the wheelchair and he is not taken to the jail hospital # 18 where he could receive relevant service. 

 

A prisoner has right to get qualified and adequate medical service that does not include only consultation but also relevant treatment aiming at curing his/her health problems. 

The state is responsible for every person who is in detention or imprisonment as they are under full control of the state. For that reason, it is urgently important that the Ministry of Corrections provided the inmates with adequate medical service without delay and respect their basic rights.   

Human Rights Center