At the plenary session of the Parliament of Georgia, during the presentation of the Report of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, the Parliamentary Minority MP, Giorgi Tevdoradze, stated: "As the statistics show, unfortunately, the number of suicides in the penitentiary system has increased during the past three years."

The Parliamentary Majority MP, Eka Beselia, responded to this statement: "What suicides? Look at the statistics carefully. About 170 prisoners per year used to die in prisons and now this number is minimal. In total, about 660 prisoners died in prisons before 2011 whilst in 2012 this number was 67, 25 in 2013 and 27 in 2014. This year, we, unfortunately, have 12 cases. As for suicides, their number was five in 2010, four in 2011, six in 2012, also six in 2013 and seven in 2014. A total of two cases of suicide have been recorded in 2015 so far."

FactCheck took interest in the accuracy of the MPs’ statements and verified them.

The Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia did not compile statistics about deceased prisoners until 2010. Statistics about the number of deaths in prisons from 2006 to 2010 can be found in the 2011 Report of the Public Defender of Georgia. As for the number of deceased prisoners, including cases of suicide from 2010 to 2015, we addressed the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia and requested the statistics. A total of two suicides were registered in 2015, seven cases in 2014 and six cases in 2013. It should be pointed out that, according to the practice of the Council of Europe, the number of deaths in prisons as well as the number of suicides is calculated per 10,000 prisoners. If we analyse the number of suicides per 10,000 prisoners it becomes evident that the suicide rate at least doubled in 2013 and 2014. It is important to note that a Suicide Prevention Programme was formulated in the Georgian penitentiary system in November 2013 and has been enacted since December 2013. The aim of the Programme was to identify the prisoner risk and inclination to commit suicide and to offer them help. Despite the existence of the aforementioned Programme, the highest suicide rate per 10,000 prisoners was still registered in 2013-2014.

Table 1:Number of Suicides in Prisons and Data per 10,000 Prisoners

As for the number of deaths in the penitentiary system, a total of 11 cases were recorded in 2015, 27 in 2014 and 25 in 2013. A total of 653 prisoners died in the Georgian penitentiary system from 2006 to 2010. We calculated the number of prisoner deaths per 10,000 prisoners (as practiced by the Council of Europe) by years.

Table 2:Number of Deaths in Georgian Prisons

As the table above makes clear, the highest number of deaths in the penitentiary system was recorded in 2010 and 2011. As compared to these data, the number of deceased prisoners decreased by six times in the first eight months of 2015.

Conclusion

According to the data of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia and the Public Defender of Georgia, a total of six prisoners committed suicide in 2013. This number was seven in 2014 and dropped down to two in the first eight months of 2015. Despite the fact that suicides in absolute numbers have practically not increased, if we consider this together with the changes in the numbers of prisoners in general (per 10,000 prisoners) we will see that the suicide rate has doubled as compared to 2006 and tripled as compared to 2010 and 2011.

As for the number of deceased prisoners, according to the data of 2015, a total of 11 prisoners have died in the Georgian penitentiary system and, hence, the death rate per 10,000 prisoners is 10.7. As these data show, as compared to the years (2010 and 2011) when the death rate was at its maximum (60), so far in 2015 it has decreased by almost six times.

The Parliamentary Majority MP, Eka Beselia, denies the growth of the number of suicides in the penitentiary system. This indicator has not increased in absolute numbers; however, the suicide rate per 10,000 prisoners has definitely increased. In addition, to strengthen her arguments, Ms Beselia invokes the statistics of deaths in prisons which has been decreased drastically as compared to the previous years and which is true. Naturally, this fact is welcome but is irrelevant in terms of analysing the suicide rate.

Giorgi Tevdoradze states that the number of suicides has increased in the past three years. Despite the fact that the suicide rate per 10,000 prisoners has increased in the past years, this indicator has remained almost the same in absolute numbers.

Hence, we can say that Giorgi Tevdoradze’s statement in MOSTLY FALSE whilst Eka Beselia’s statement in HALF TRUE.