Check Your Fact service, our reader, Iago Akhobadze, asked us to verify the accuracy of a statement made by the former Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Mr Ivanishvili stated: "To clarify exactly how ‘well’ we manage to control the government, it would be enough to analyse the deeds of Saakashvili’s government – prisons full of people and 300,000 probationers."
At the request of the reader, FactChecklooked into the number of probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012.
The term "probationer" is a non-legal term as it cannot be found in any law or legal normative act. According to the information of the National Probation Agency of Georgia, the term is used to describe those individuals with suspended sentences or parolees.
A suspended sentence is given in cases strictly determined by the law. In terms of a suspended sentence, the court is authorised to impose additional obligations upon an individual (for example, not to change a living address without the permission of the National Probation Agency, not to visit a certain location, to undergo treatment and so on). It is also possible to allocate a probationary period during which time an individual must not commit another crime and fulfil all of the imposed obligations. The National Probation Agency is responsible for the control of the actions of individuals with suspended sentences.
An individual who is convicted of a crime can be paroled if the court (or in special cases a local council of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia) believes that it is no longer necessary for him to serve out the full sentence.
Hence, both the suspended sentence and parole are types of conditional punishment. As pointed out earlier, the term probationer includes those individuals who were given the aforementioned sentences.
We addressed the National Probation Agency in order to find out the number of probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012. The statistics provided by the Agency are not entirely accurate because, as they explained, the data might include individuals who were considered as probationers in the previous year as well. Despite this, FactCheckanalysed the information provided by the Agency.
Year | Individuals with Suspended Sentences | Parolees |
2004 | 6,277 | 1,197 |
2005 | 7,827 | 1,212 |
2006 | 9,558 | 558 |
2007 | 16,073 | 245 |
2008 | 21,387 | 499 |
2009 | 26,628 | 409 |
2010 | 31,986 | 186 |
2011 | 38,681 | 136 |
2012 | 33,109 | 604 |
Overall | 191,526 | 5,046 |
Even if we assume that the statistics of each year do not include the probationers of the previous year, the overall number does not reach 300,000. In this case, we have a total of 119,736 individuals with suspended sentences and 5,046 parolees in Georgia.
As pointed out earlier, even these numbers are exaggerated as the data of certain years also include individuals who were probationers for several years in a row. For example, if an individual were given a suspended sentence of five years in 2005, he would be included in the statistics of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 as well. Hence, there could have been approximately 124,782 probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012; however, it is highly likely that the actual number is much smaller.
In order to assess the number of probationers in Georgia, it is important to compare these numbers with the similar statistics of other countries. The Council of Europe publishes its statisticsof court sentences annually where it compares the statistics of its member states. According to these data, Georgia held the first place by the number of probationers per 100,000 people in 2011.
No. | Country | Number of Probationers | Per 100,000 People |
1 | Georgia | 38,692 | 865.73 |
2 | Poland | 244,091 | 633.51 |
3 | Turkey | 400,494 | 543.24 |
4 | Estonia | 7,235 | 539.84 |
5 | Belgium | 40,606 | 369.14 |
6 | UK (Wales) | 162,674 | 289.61 |
7 | Luxembourg | 1,463 | 285.85 |
8 | France | 184,284 | 283.76 |
9 | UK (Ireland) | 4,273 | 236.48 |
10 | Lithuania | 7,136 | 233.77 |
It is interesting to see how the number of probationers in Georgia changed after 2012.
Year | Individuals with Suspended Sentences | Parolees |
2013 | 11,445 | 474 |
2014 | 15,361 | 356 |
The number of probationers decreased significantly in 2013 and 2014. If we compare the data for Georgia in 2013 with that of the others,
an improvement is easy to see here as well.
No. | Country | Number of Probationers | Per 100,000 People |
1 | Turkey | 965,234 | 1,276.3 |
2 | Latvia | 17,383 | 858.92 |
3 | Poland | 208,139 | 540.15 |
4 | Estonia | 6,409 | 485.47 |
5 | Hungary | 38,195 | 385.47 |
6 | Belgium | 39,483 | 353.74 |
7 | UK (Scotland) | 17,147 | 321.85 |
8 | France | 187,056 | 285.24 |
9 | Moldova | 9,963 | 279.9 |
10 | Lithuania | 8,297 | 279.18 |
11 | UK (Wales) | 150,469 | 264.22 |
12 | Netherlands | 43,010 | 256.32 |
13 | Georgia | 11,445 | 255.65 |
14 | Luxembourg | 1,339 | 249.33 |
15 | Portugal | 25,911 | 247.07 |
Georgia held the 13th
place among the European countries in 2013. The number of probationers per 100,000 people decreased from 865.73 to 255.65.
Conclusion
According to the data received from the National Probation Agency, there were a total of 124,782 probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012. The received data are somewhat exaggerated as the data of certain years also include those individuals who were probationers for several years in a row. In any case, the number of probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012 did not reach 300,000 people as stated by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Despite this, according to the annual statistics of court sentences of the Council of Europe, Georgia held the first place in Europe by the number of probationers per 100,000 people. The number of probationers has decreased significantly since the 2012 Parliamentary elections. Georgia moved from the first to the 13thplace in Europe.
FactCheck concludes that Bidzina Ivanishvili’s statement, saying that there were a total of 300,000 probationers in Georgia from 2004 to 2012, is HALF TRUE.