HRW: Georgia's prisons rife with abuses

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The former Soviet state of Georgia, despite commitments to reforms, keeps its prisoners in inhuman and degrading conditions, says Human Rights watch.

The New York-based group, in a report released Thursday, says many of the 13,000 inmates in the country are subjected to severe beatings and other ill-treatment. It says that in several facilities prisoners live in severely overcrowded, filthy and poorly-ventilated cells.

The report says in the past two years the prison population has nearly doubled due to the routine use of pretrial detention, even for nonviolent offences. About two-thirds of the prisoners have yet to come to trial.

"The Georgian government portrays itself as fully committed to human rights and has repeatedly promised to address the ghastly conditions in its prison system," said HRW's Holly Cartner. "But, instead of fulfilling these promises, the authorities have taken deliberate steps to restrict fundamental rights, including the rights of those in detention."