On January 29-30, 2011 the Penal Reform International (with the participation of Tsira Chanturia, Regional Director at PRI) and the Civil Society Institute NGO held a training - "Treatment of Life Sentence Prisoners in Accordance with International Standards and National Legislation", for the employees of penitentiary institutions responsible for work with life sentence prisoners. The training session was conducted by Givi Mikanadze (international trainer, expert) and Edmon Marukyan (member of Public observers' group performing public control at penitentiary institutions, attorney).

The topics discussed during the two-day seminar were the status of life sentence prisoners by national legislation and their rights stipulated by the law. The discussions were based on the concern that legislation and practice sometimes contradict each other; cases of abuse of their rights by convicts as well as cases of careless performance of their responsibilities by the penitentiary institution administration are possible. The issue of compensation of moral damage not stipulated by national legislation was emphasized.

Participants expressed their concerns about the order established by law and its subjective perception by the convicts (in particular, convicts complain that during short visits they communicate through a glass partition: "Why don't I have a right to hug my kid?"). Peculiarities of treatment and order of maintenance of life sentence prisoners stipulated by national legislation were discussed. Participants also touched upon possible and existing corruption risks that somehow put convicts in unequal conditions. Attention of participants was attracted to special groups of convicts and their treatment according to national standards as well as to issues of pardon procedure and conditional early release in accordance with national legislation and international standards.

Trainers presented the norms of international law related to life sentence prisoners, made  comparison of Georgian and Armenian experience, discussed basic problems of Georgian and Armenian legislation relating to the conditional early release of life sentence prisoners. Since there are no life sentence prisoners on conditional early release in either country, the discussions were of theoretical nature. Group discussions of concrete cases were organized during which participants had a chance of enriching their knowledge in the field of international law.

Numerous legislative and practical problems relating to convicts as well as the rights of the system employees were discussed within the general context of the problems of the system. In particular, special attention was paid to the problems of staffing and resources. It has been mentioned that it is impossible to accomplish appropriately the line of duty in accordance with letter of the law. (For example, if there is shortage of employees in the correctional institution, they cannot provide the daily one-hour walk for each convict stipulated by law since it is impossible to provide appropriate control; or if the number of walk-areas is limited and the institution is overcrowded it is impossible to provide for convicts' right for the daily one-hour walk stipulated by law).

Summing up the training participants expressed their satisfaction for the obtained new and useful knowledge and high level of the training organization expressing their conviction that the obtained knowledge is quite applicable in their future work. Therefore, there is a need for such trainings especially for the staff directly involved in work with convicts, so participants expressed their hope that more such training would be held in future.

Sofya Avagyan

Source: www.hra.am