Officials are concerned that prisons in Armenia are overcrowded, with double the number of prisoners they were made to hold, and are appealing to authorities to reform the parole system to grant amnesty.
This week a group of public observers held monitoring visits to nine detention centers where they found that in some prisons 20 inmates are kept in cells designed for eight. The overcrowding is believed to be a potential cause of increased violence and suicide.
Armen Danielyan, head of the 11-member public group and president of the Civil Society Institute (CSI) NGO, says that the number of convicts at penitentiaries rose by 20 percent last year (there are about 5,000 convicts in Armenia).
“Nubarashen penitentiary is the largest in Armenia: 840 convicts serve their punishment there. If the increase in prisoners remains the same, then we would have to build new ‘Nubarashens’ each year,” Danielyan says.
Observers say even minimal standards of conditions are not met. For example, convicts must sleep in shifts, as there are not enough beds.
Law enforcement officials say the rise in inmate population parallels a rise in crime and is consistent with Armenia’s use of pre-trial detention and the rare cases of parole.
Head of Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan says that the problem of prisons overcrowding has been voiced for years; however, no serious steps are taken to solve this issue.
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