“The Ministry of Justice has almost no control over the penitentiary system
as the Head of the Penitentiary Department is appointed by the RA President”,
told the President of the Civil Society Institute NGO (CSI) Arman Danielyan at
the press-conference held on November 27, 2012.

He
believes that the penitentiary system that was dynamic and open for reforms around
10 years ago eventually is turning into closed and stagnant.

“If the Minister of Justice is powerful
and influential, he is in position to establish control and to implement reforms.
However, during the tenure of the two recent ministers the control over the penitentiary
system has been gone down”, expressed his opinion CSI President.

While
discussing increased cases of self-injuries among prisoners in the penitentiary
institutions, he mentioned that the real reason was absence of effective mechanism
of lodging complaints.

“Unfortunately, they do not see any other way to raise their voices. A convict
does not know where to apply or what to do. I have doubts that in case a
convict submits a complaint or appeal with the Minister of Justice, it would
reach the Minister as all the correspondence in the penitentiary institutions
is censored. Even if it is delivered, I am not sure whether the Minister has
enough influence to solve the problem”, pointed out Arman Danielyan. 

The
whole critique and questions are directed to the Minister of Justice, while, in
Danileyan’s opinion, the only official who has power to solve the problems and
is responsible for the current situation is the Head of the Penitentiary
Department.

Arman
Danielyan observed many problems in the penitentiary system but his most
serious concern is the system of early conditional release.

The
independent commissions on the early-conditional release that were introduced
to put an end to corruption in the system led to another extreme.

“Around
70% of the applications are rejected without any substantiation or principle
and these decisions cannot be appealed. Nobody understands the criteria and
tools used by the independent commissions while evaluating the so called
correction of a convict and the latter does not figure out what to do or not to
get the early release”, says Arman Danielyan.

Legal psychologist Anahit Arzumanyan believes
that one psychologist or one social worker in the penitentiary institution is
not able to work with hundreds of convicts and do it properly. On the other
hand, the psychologist is required to wear the uniform and the convict
perceives him/her as a staff member of the penitentiary institution and does
not trust.

“Transformation
of the value system, re-education and isolation are among the functions of a  penitentiary institution. However, currently
only the function of isolation is implemented in Armenia under so poor conditions
that cannot contribute to any transformation of the value system or correction”,
says Anahit Arzumanyan. According to her, a convict tends to re-offence because
we do not have an effective reintegration and re-socialization system.

«The
social-psychological service does not have the influence on the decision making
in the way it was meant when the service was introduced», says Arman Danielyan.

According
to him, in the international practice the risk of re-offence by the convicts applied
for the early conditional release is assessed by the probation service.

Steps
have been undertaken towards formation of the probation service in Armenia,
but, according to Arman Danielyan, there is an issue of lack of probation
experts.