By Mher Yenokyan; Hetq’s Correspondent at Nubarashen Prison

They closed the first story of the round prison around five months ago.

Inmates are no longer held there due to unbelievably terrible stench that permeated the place.  Afterwards, due to some unexplained reason, the stench wafted through the entire prison, even into the fifth floor where the lifers are held.

At the time I had written that the Ministry of Justice should either take steps to eradicate the stench or pay for cologne to be supplied to convicts and prison guards.

Then, on TV, I saw that the sewage water had reached downtown Yerevan. One day later, looking out my cell window, I saw a tractor working near the round prison. Workers were fixing the sewer pipes. The stench up on the fifth floor, where those serving life sentences are held, has drastically decreased. In fact, the entire prison smells better.

I’ve always complained about cigarette smoke at the prison. In 1996 I said it was unacceptable to hold convicts in small cells where most guys were smoking.

I’ve never smoked. I’ve always found the odor disgusting. My father, who hasn’t been able to quit, goes on the balcony to smoke. On the outside, people can get away from that poisonous smoke. But what can a person in prison do?

When I voiced my concerns 21 years ago, the deputy warden was somewhat surprised.

- Mher, in all my years on the job, it’s the first time I’ve heard such a demand.

Armenia had just gained its independence and had a long way to go regarding complying with internationally accepted standards, especially within prison walls.

They transferred me from the round prison “quarantine” to cell 52 on the second floor. A really smart guy had been living there for a year – the mathematician Gourgen Martirosyan. His was a political matter.

Gourgen smoked, but not much. There were 20 guys in the 20 square meter cell, mostly all smokers. Luckily, we all realized the evident health risk involved and decided that only two convicts could smoke at the same time. We agreed to respect one another. Prison management even let me have a small fan.

Back when I was on death row, it was impossible to resolve this issue. Those facing execution had no rights – no right to shower, read, listen to the radio, brush one’s teeth…

Fine, let’s talk about the positive, all of which is due to my own stubbornness and prison management’s fear of the response of European institutions. There’s been no cigarette smoke in our cell for years. Even the guards don’t enter with a lit cigarette.

A few days ago, I was discussing the bill to fine people caught smoking in public places with one of the prison employees. He said something interesting.

If you look at the round portion of Nubarashen Prison from a distance, especially in the summer, smoke from exhaust pipe flows upwards.

The guy says the reason for this has to do with physics. The cigarette smoke of a thousand inmates, coupled with the stench from the toilets and sewers, is all sucked out, due to a pressure difference, from the cells, through the hallways, to the center of the prison and into the round pipe.

All that smoke rises into the air. In the summer, you can clearly see it from afar.

(Mher Yenokyan, serving a life sentence, has been imprisoned for the past 21 years)