Prisoners Are Severely Treated in Kutaisi Prison

Prisoners from the detention setting # 2 and prison of severe regime within the Penitentiary Department complain about poor conditions and being severely treated by bailiffs.

Relatives of the prisoners applied to the Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi office regarding the situation. “The situation in Kutaisi prison is unbearable. They treat prisoners as if they are not people. I wonder why prisoners do not resist bad treatment, they might have been scared or something like that. Though, it is fact that nobody speaks about the problem openly. I am a mother and worried about my son. Besides that I am afraid it will have some tragic ending,” said the mother of a prisoner who is not judged yet.

Neither Manana Managadze, the chairwoman of the Prison Monitoring Council, denies the fact that prisoners complain too often. According to her it would be difficult to improve the situation unless the prisoners avoid speaking about their problems publicly and give concrete facts of their complaints.

“I know that the prisoners’ rights are blatantly violated but if they do not appeal to us officially, I have no right to act. When I enter the prison I have to hear similar facts, but they cannot prove it officially. There was one occasion, in the punishment cell, there was no bed and the prisoner had to stand all the time. We applied to the Ministry of Justice and the problem was eradicated. The prisoner was released from the punishment cell. So, if they complain about their problems publicly, we will try to assist them,” said Managadze.

The chairwoman of the Monitoring Council, together with other members of the council, intends to visit prisoners in the nearest future.  

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi