OSCE Mission to help train staff for new prison in western Georgia

TBILISI, 1 September 2005 - The OSCE Mission in Georgia tomorrow begins a training course to assist the country's Ministry of Justice in establishing professional standards of penitentiary management in a new prison in Kutaisi.

Mission Head, Ambassador Roy Reeve, said that the three-week training programme for some 300 penitentiary personnel, half of them newly appointed, would focus on the treatment of detainees, security, defence and legal issues, as well as international standards and control mechanisms.

"The basic training will be supplemented by a seven-day programme for top and middle management of the prison," he added.

An international expert provided by the Mission, will head the course which will be delivered by 19 Georgian trainers, who have previously undergone professional training delivered by the Mission, OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Council of Europe and the United Nations Development Programme.

The course is part of the OSCE's rule of law programme in Georgia that helps the Ministry develop an in-service training system for penitentiary staff.