A blanket amnesty may offer a simple way to reduce pressure on Armenia’s penitentiary system but would not necessarily serve the public interest, Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan said during budget discussions in the National Assembly.
“If amnesty serves the interests of people held in Nubarashen, it does not serve the interests of people walking the streets of Yerevan. And we are talking about a blanket amnesty,” the minister said, Factor.am reports.
Galyan also presented statistics on previously released individuals who had committed further crimes, saying the figures demonstrated the importance of rehabilitation and social reintegration programs.
“We have statistical data: 55% of people who have previously returned to society are repeat offenders. We are making efforts to ensure that these repeat offenders also undergo rehabilitation and reintegration. Amnesty is a simple and easy solution for the government, but we believe that easy solutions are not for us in this case,” Galyan said.
The minister said the government was seeking to involve repeat offenders in rehabilitation programs, prioritizing the reduction of potential risks to society rather than simply cutting the number of incarcerated people.
Lawmaker Lianna Gasparyan also raised concerns about conditions at the Nubarashen penitentiary institution and delays in constructing a new correctional facility.
In response, Galyan said the site of the former Erebuni penitentiary institution had been considered for the new facility. However, studies identified unstable, shifting soil layers at the location, making construction there inadvisable.
“We have now found a solution that will allow us to move forward. It involves building the appropriate facility through a public-private partnership,” the minister said.
During the discussion, criticism was also voiced over the expenditure of public funds on studies conducted at the former Erebuni penitentiary site. Galyan rejected the criticism, stressing that preliminary investigations had made it possible to identify unfavorable construction conditions in time.
“Should we have avoided spending the money and started construction, only for you to come and say, ‘Oh, you’ve wasted money. Couldn’t you have checked seismic safety beforehand and then started building?’” she said.
Addressing the current pressure on the penitentiary system, the minister reported that the total number of people held in detention facilities had already exceeded 3,300. At the same time, the number of individuals monitored through electronic surveillance measures had approached 2,000.
Another topic of the parliamentary discussion was the possibility of decriminalizing driving while disqualified from holding a driver’s license, an offense covered by Article 344 of the Criminal Code.
Galyan said the government had considered the proposal but did not deem its adoption appropriate.
According to her, the decision was based on an assessment of the public danger posed by the offense and the deterrent effect of criminal liability.
The minister noted that decriminalization could substantially reduce the number of cases under investigation and ease the system’s workload, but said such a step could have negative consequences for society.
“In the context of policymaking, we have concluded that this act poses a significant danger to the public, and maintaining it as a criminally prosecutable offense has a major preventive effect. Once again, it would be an easy solution to decriminalize it and reduce the caseload by 30–50%, but again, that could harm our society,” Galyan said.
