The penitentiary institutions will be more locked until the elimination of coronavirus and the relevant plan is now being devised. Such a statement made today the Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani.

According to her, the plan will be announced next week.

“I want to announce today that at the beginning of the next week, we will disclose the plan first to the staff and prisoners and then to the general public. We are working on it now, which means that penitentiary establishments will be more closed to prevent the import of the infection from the outside.

This does not mean that the inmates in the so-called zone will be placed in closed facilities. However, I would advise them to implement the recommendations of the healthcare system, which implies observing distances and various other rules. The plan also implies that as few employees as possible should go home from prison”, - said the Minister.

She also added that the term of the two-week special conditions imposed on March 19 at penitentiary facilities, has expired but maybe extended after April 3.

“Dates with prisoners will be restricted as before but 15-minute-long free phone conversations will be arranged in agreement with cellular communications companies. The newly convicted prisoners will be subjected to 21-day quarantine in a special space. Besides, starting March 20, no employee will be allowed at work with any symptom of COVID-19”, - explained the Minister.

Tsulukiani informed that no new inmates can join the old contingent until the quarantine period expires.

“There are special security measures in prisons. Those inmates with suspicious symptoms were sent to a clinic. A total of 26 of them, but none of them tested positive. Taking prisoners to court got banned since March 24, and online trials are underway”, - concluded Tea Tsulukiani.