In November 2009, the UN General Assembly announced July 18 The International Day of Nelson Mandela, who made an outstanding contribution to the history of the struggle for peace and freedom. Since 2015, this international day has also served as an additional opportunity to draw attention to the problems of prisoners around the world, the need for humane treatment of them, a reminder that they are an integral part of society, as well as to recognize the importance of the work of prison staff performing, in fact, social work of particular importance. Unfortunately, the problem of torture and ensuring normal conditions of detention is no exception for Abkhazia. Despite the fact that Article 15 of the Constitution of Abkhazia stipulates that no one can be subjected to torture, violence, other cruel or degrading treatment or punishment, every year the department of The Commissioner for Human Rights receives information about the inhuman and degrading treatment of persons in custody. In this regard, I would like to note that the Republic of Abkhazia, being a civilized democratic state, should strive to implement the universally recognized principles and norms of international law recognized by its Constitution, ensure respect for human rights in places of deprivation of liberty in accordance with the requirements international norms and standards. The provisions of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules), in our opinion, should be taken into account when reforming the legal and institutional foundations of the penal system of Abkhazia, which today continues to operate on the basis of correctional labor legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics of July 11, 1969. The absence of modern penal enforcement legislation can be regarded as a failure to fulfill the obligations of the state in the implementation of penal enforcement policy and respect for the rights of convicts. Along with the problem of the use of torture, it is worth mentioning the problem of the re-socialization of persons who have served sentences in places of deprivation of liberty. The problem is that criminal punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty leads to the weakening or loss of social ties of the convicted person, that is, after the expiration of the sentence, the released person has problems with housing, work, which can subsequently lead to the commission of new criminal acts. That is why it is necessary to create programs for the social rehabilitation of persons released from places of serving sentences. In our opinion, the orientation of the penitentiary system cannot be exclusively punitive in nature, but should primarily be focused on the correction and social re-education of convicts. We hope that the numerous problems and recommendations reflected in the annual reports of the Commissioner and his thematic monitoring will be embodied in the work of the relevant State bodies, since the need to reform the penal system of the Republic of Abkhazia is long overdue.