Crime and Excessive Punishment: the Prevalence and Causes of Human Rights Abuse in Georgia’S Prisons
CRIME AND EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT: THE PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN GEORGIA’S PRISONS Gavin Slade Iago Kachkachishvili Lela Tsiskarishvili Nika Jeiranashvili Nino Gobronidze Advisors: Baroness Vivien Stern, Professor Andrew Coyle CRIME AND EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT: THE PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN GEORGIA’S PRISONS Tbilisi, 2014 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The following report was made possible by generous contribution of individual experts and organizations who contributed their time and expertise. Open Society Georgia Foundation would like to extend special thanks to the authors and advisors of this report; contributing experts: Emil Adelkhanov, Giorgi Burjanadze, Mariana Chicu, Tsira Chanturia; and organizations: Article 42 of the Constitution, Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Human Rights Center, Institute of Social Studies and Analysis, International Center for Prison Studies, Penal Reform International, Public Advocacy, and Youth for Justice. The Foundation would like to express gratitude to Public Defender of Georgia, to the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia, and to the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector, who enabled the interviewers to conduct prisoners’ survey. The Foundation would also like to thank hundreds of individuals throughout Georgia, who have participated as respondents in the survey. PREFACE In the last decade, the small south Caucasus country of Georgia has been turned into a testing ground for radical criminal justice policies. In 2003-2012, its prison population jumped by 300%, a huge increase that led to Georgia being the fourth biggest incarcerator in the world per capita by 2010. Then, following a change of government, in a three-month period, beginning at the end of 2012 around half of the 24,000- strong prison population were released in an amnesty.
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