"The state of a country can and must be judged by the conditions of its detention facilities," says Mikayel Danielyan, the chairman of the Helsinki Association of Armenia.

- You have recently been in Norway and studied the detention institutions in that country. What are your impressions?

- I was there at the invitation of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHK) within the framework of a project to monitor the detention system in Armenia, to discuss our future activities. One day of my visit was dedicated to seeing detention facilities in Norway. I visited a detention jail for those awaiting trial, a prison, and a rehabilitation center for drug addicts. All three institutions are situated in Oslo and represent one complex. The jail, with 200 inmates awaiting trial, is located in the building of a brewery built in the 19 th century. The prison, with 175 convicts, is constructed in accordance with the so-called "Philadelphia" principle. It has a main building and five wings. The main building is an 18 th century chapel. The rehabilitation center for drug addicts is envisaged for twenty people and is located in a three-story mansion, which in the past housed the management of the brewery.

Inside the Oslo prison	Solitary cell

It's hard to share my impressions; there are too many. But the main thing I would like to stress is the state's attitude toward the detainees and toward the detention system in general. I'll try to illustrate it with examples. The library of this institution is a branch of the National Library of Norway. I saw books in Russian, Polish, French, and Arabic there. The cells in the detention jail and in the prison are for one person; the doors open at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. Generally speaking, it's hard to even call them cells. When you walk around this institution, you don't clearly realize where you are. The building was constructed two or three centuries ago, but you feel like you're in a modern hotel with an expensive "euro-renovation", as we call it. Each cell has a TV set and a refrigerator. The menus are attached to the doors in accordance to the inmate's taste. The wardens keep an eye on the inmates. 40 percent of them are women, 60 percent are men. Each of them is responsible for three inmates. According to the officers of this institution, it is not one of the best places to serve time. In some detention centers, the cells have showers.

The Oslo prison library	Nubarashen criminal-executive institution

There are parallel bars on the windows twenty centimeters apart. [In Armenia, the bars are crosshatched, and closer together.] There are billiard and ping-pong tables in the hallways for active rest. And the most unbelievable thing - if the inmate behaves himself he is allowed to go home for a day, and this might occur 21 times a year. Also, each inmate receives $7 a day for personal needs. And if he works he can support his family better than free residents of the CIS. I don't want to talk about the food or the kitchen, where the inmates can make food for themselves. Seventy percent of the women in Armenia would be envious of the equipment in this kitchen.

- Norwegian experts monitored Armenian detention centers months ago. What were their impressions?

-When they visited our detention facilities, our Norwegian colleagues simply could not comprehend many things. For example, they could not understand why there was no normal food, no necessary medicine, or why the employees of the Nubarashen criminal-executive institution have no place to relax, not to mention toilets or baths. They also couldn't understand how it is possible to keep people in a place like the Vanadzor criminal-executive institution. They don't understand why the managers of these institutions lay the blame for everything on the lack of financing. And the main thing the Norwegians can't understand is that the Armenian authorities don't wish to improve the situation.

- Most people believe that detention institutions must be "harsh" like they are in Armenia; they must be distinguished by cruel and unbearable conditions, in order to rehabilitate the criminals. Nevertheless, do you think it is possible to implement in Armenia what you saw in Norway?

-I would like to quote Hydro Polymers, an inspector of the Oslo detention institution: "Detaining prisoners in our institution is not a punishment. They have already been punished by losing their freedom. Our task is to rehabilitate them." In this connection, I would like to tell you about the rehabilitation center for drug addicts, in particular. When I visited the center, I didn't see any one in uniform and I asked the young man in civilian clothes who was accompanying me why the wardens weren't wearing uniforms. It turned out that he was a warden himself, but the drug addicts undergoing treatment don't like uniformed people; that's why all the employees wear civilian clothes. Moreover, when he showed me the defensive devices that are supposed to be used during potential insurgencies, he expressed a negative attitude toward new metallic batons. He believed that in civilized societies such devices should not be used. Now you figure out yourself when and how it will be possible to employ an approach like that in Armenia.

Daily ration at the Nubarasher criminal- executive institution	Toilet in the Sevan criminal-executive institution

- Will Armenia's legislation, and the will and the professional conduct of law enforcement agencies, permit making our detention facilities, if not like the Norwegians', but at least bearable? What will it take for that?

-In order to have real reforms in the detention system of Armenia we need not money, but first of all, we need a change in mentality. Not only the mentality of the officers of the law, but that of society as a whole must change. The state of a country can and must be judged by the conditions of its detention facilities. And this, first of all, must be realized by the Armenian authorities.