Armenia: Life Behind the Locks
ABOVYAN, Established in 1958, its buildings have seen in a state of disrepair since the collapse of the former Rostom Martirosian, Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Abovian, has been working at the Colony for the past 27 years and has seen both positive and negative changes. In the years 1980 to1985, he says, there were over 300 children here. “During the Soviet years, some aspects of the Colony were better,” he says, “especially on education for children in conflict with the law. In 1990 conditions began to decline, although they are now slowly starting to improve again. More importantly, though, the number of children here has been halved.” Now there are 40 children here, all aged 14 to 18 and all of them boys, including 20 in pre-trial detention. Their average age is 17, and the maximum sentence being served is 10 years.
Pushing for reform Recent legislative changes will allow those convicted as teenagers to serve their complete sentence in Abovyan rather than transferring to adult prisons where conditions are far worse. This is just one of a number of changes that have taken place since the colony came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, rather than the Ministry of the Interior in 2001. UNICEF played its part, making recommendations on juvenile justice administration to the Ministry of Justice and to the Police that were incorporated into a new plan of action. In 2003, UNICEF launched a training programme for prison wardens that centered on the psychological, legal and educational aspects of dealing with juvenile offenders. “The objective of the training was to build the capacity of staff working with children and women in prison to give them better skills and a more humane approach in their work,” says Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child Protection Officer. “The 2004 training focused on the new provisions of the criminal code as well as other laws relating to women and children,” she says. “It was important that prison officers become familiar with the changes and new provisions because they’re the ones that will implement them.” “Training was very effective in increasing our knowledge,” agrees Stepan Hakobian, a Senior Lieutenant at the Colony, “and we do apply what we have learned in working with the children. Because the Criminal Code has changed, we needed assistance in understanding what this meant in our daily work. The children also benefit because the law is now more liberal.” In a new cycle of four day training sessions held last summer, 74 prison officers benefited from training organized by UNICEF. Artur Hovannisian, Senior Specialist of the Division for Legal Reforms of the Department for Judicial Reforms at the Ministry of Justice, says that it was only natural that his Ministry turned to UNICEF for assistance as part of ongoing reform of the judicial system in “As part of these reforms, especially the National Plan of Action for Children 2004-2010 and the new Criminal Executive Code that came into force in 2005, these reforms and a corresponding change in attitude and improvement in the knowledge of prison workers is part of And because of reform of the Criminal Code, which has now seen the introduction of fines and probation as well as community service, the number of juvenile detainees continues to decrease. In particular, pre-trial detention is now sought only for serious crimes committed by minors. “The most important part is the decriminalization of the prison system in
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