PM lauds “genuine improvements” in prison system after “heavy legacy” at int’l conference

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Wednesday commended “genuine improvements” in the prison system under the current authorities following the “heavy legacy” of the United National Movement Government, in his address at the international conference in Tbilisi on Innovations in the Rehabilitation and Resocialisation Process of Inmates and Probationers. 

 

Garibashvili claimed the current Government had implemented “major reforms” that had transformed the country into a “truly democratic state”. 

 

Providing data to point to “achievements”, the PM said the European Court of Human Rights had received “no complaints” from the country’s penitentiary since 2012 and the number of  complaints against Georgia had decreased from 3,000 in 2011 to 147 in 2023. 

 

“We do not see prison as a penal system, but rather as a place to properly manage the time an inmate spends in the penitentiary system, and we believe that this is the right way to offer programs and mechanisms tailored to individual needs to allow their resocialization after release”, Garibashvili said. 

 

The conference has brought together the representatives of more than 20 foreign states, the PM said.