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Sara Petrosyan

Convicts Are a Burden to the State

Vardges Margaryan is serving the seventh year of a ten-year sentence at the Kosh Correctional Institution of the Ministry of Justice. As of September 2005 he had served two-thirds of his term and was thus eligible for parole.

Margaryan, from Gyumri, was performing his military service in 1999 when he was convicted of causing the suicide of a fellow soldier and given a ten-year prison term. The sentence also obligated him to pay $3,000 for the victim's funeral but, he says, he lacks the means to do so. His family, too, is unable to help. His fifty-year-old mother is ill and unemployed, and has been living in a trailer since the 1988 earthquake.

He is not the only inmate of this correctional institution facing this problem. Twenty-nine-year-old Shiraz Markosyan, serving a sentence of six-and-a-half years for killing a man, has been eligible for parole for four months now but has little hope of being released. He was ordered to compensate the family of his victim 600,000 drams (about $1,330) but has no money. "I've been in prison for three-and-a-half years, but I can't get out on parole. Before my conviction I worked a plot of land in Charentsavan to make my living," Markosyan said. He explained that his parents were also unable to pay.

Manvel Gurdjanyan, who as deputy head of the Kosh Correctional Institution is responsible for social and psychological issues, told us that this problem first arose several months ago. Before that, several convicts had been released on parole, but they were sent back to prison when the victims' families complained.

In July 2005 the National Assembly added a paragraph to Article 15 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia: "Exemption from punishment on parole or replacement of the unserved part of the punishment with a lighter punishment cannot be applied to convicts who committed crimes inflicting damage to a person's health or causing a person's death in which the convict has not fully indemnified for losses". This amendment was adopted by the parliament in response to requests from mothers of soldiers killed in the Army.

Manvel Gurdjanyan noted that it is socially vulnerable people who face this problem. There is one way for the prison administration to help them: "If the victim's representative agrees that the convict be released on parole and then pay the required amount in installments this will be grounds for releasing the prisoner on parole," he explained.

Neither Margaryan nor Markosyan has the written consent of the victims' representatives, and thus the issue of their release on parole cannot be addressed. They will serve their prison terms in full.

And what does the victim's side stand to gain when in addition to losing loved ones, they also incurred financial losses without being recompensed?

"Experience shows that when a convict eligible for parole is not released, the victims' relatives are recompensed for their material losses if not fully, at least in part. We should also make sure that the victims' rights are protected," said Samvel Hovhannisyan, head of the department of criminal procedure of the Ministry of Justice. He told us that at present the correctional institutions cannot provide inmates with jobs and they are unable to earn money while serving their terms. Thus it remains for their relatives to find the money to compensate for the damages. (See: Criminal Executive Institution)

Convicts should be given work to do

When the Soviet Union collapsed, jobs were lost in the correctional institutions as well. The head of the department of criminal procedure told us that in the past, there were production units within the territory of the prison where the convicts worked. After 1990-1991 some production units were robbed and what equipment was left is now obsolete and can no longer be used. "We need investors to employ the convicts, but there are no investors today and the state is unable to do it," Hovhannisyan said.

In order to solve the problem of employment for prison inmates a fund was established called In Support of Convicts , but as yet it has had no tangible results. According to the department head, having inmates convict work on the territory of the correctional institution instead of hanging about is above all a social-psychological issue. Work would both make the time pass more quickly and provide inmates with a way to earn money to pay fines and support their families.

"They are a burden to the state, and we should try to create production units, but I can say for

sure that in the near future there will be no development of manufacturing in the correctional institutions," Hovhannisyan said. He told us that the government increases budget allocations to the department every year. In 2006 some four billion drams (about $8.9 million) was allocated. But at the same time he noted that during the Soviet era, when correctional institutions had production capacities, they contributed to the state budget, rather than being on the receiving end.

It is common knowledge that numerous NGOs are implementing projects to reform our correctional institutions. According to Samvel Hovhannisyan, the penitentiary system has yet to benefit from their activity. They print brochures and organize workshops-one that stands out is the sculpture classes in the Abovyan juvenile colony organized by Temik Khalapyan. But, said the department head, "the benefit would be in building a new correctional institution or restructuring an existing one." He also stressed that the conditions in the old institutions do not meet European standards. They can accommodate enclosed colonies, but not half-closed or open ones, because of the building conditions. Today, with state funding, the Artik Correctional Institution has been reconstructed, a new jail is being built in Vanadzor, and a new prison building for Etchmiadzin is being designed.

Photo by Onnik Krikorian

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