EU and Georgia take stock of 2016-2020 cooperation in reforming crime prevention, probation and prison management systems

On 4th September 2020 the EU and Ministry of Justice held a summary conference for the ‘EU4 Justice Penitentiary and Probation Support Project’.

The four-year project shared experience and expertise of EU member states and effectively assisted Georgian authorities with the objective to prevent repeated crimes, and maintain a proper balance between ensuring public order and security and guaranteeing human rights protection.

The project’s objectives were notably:

• Adoption by the Ministry of Justice of a modern vision and measures in management of prisons and prisoners with emphasis on social and crime prevention,
• Strengthened skills of prisons’ regime staff, social workers and psychologists,
• Improved prison administration including IT management systems,
• Introduction in prisons of risk and needs assessments as well as sentence planning adapted to individual prisoners,
• Stepped up resocialization and rehabilitation programmes, incl. out-of-cell activities and incentives, and
• Enhanced quality of the probation service.

The project is a part of wider EU support to the Georgian Government to bring crime prevention, probation and prison management systems closer to the European standards.

The conference was opened by H.E. Carl Hartzell, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Ms. Thea Tsulukiani, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Mr. Randel Barrows, Team Leader of the EU4Justice Project.

Ambassador Hartzell noted: ‘The EU has been a supporter of reforms and modernization of the Georgian penitentiary system for many years now. We are glad to see that, in close cooperation with our projects, the authorities have made important steps towards a more modern and efficient management of prisons and prisoners, to better ensure prisoners’ rights and over time achieve less repeat offences and crime in Georgia. Against the background of our good partnership and results achieved, I look forward to continue this cooperation in the years to come.”

A new phase of the project will focus on the management of mid- and high risk inmates to prevent crimes in and outside prisons.

For more information, please contact Tamriko Mikadze at Tamriko.mikadze@eeas.europa.eu