Armenia currently has 1,718 convicted prisoners and 1,522 people in pretrial detention, Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan said, noting that such a ratio had not been recorded in the past five years.
The minister presented the figures during a joint meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committees on State and Legal Affairs and on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs as part of preliminary discussions on the draft 2027 state budget.
“Until the end of last year, the number of convicted prisoners in our country was lower than the number of pretrial detainees, and we have done a great deal of work to change that ratio in favor of convicted prisoners. This was also identified as a problem in international reports,” she said, according to Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times).
According to Galyan, the previous imbalance had also been raised as a concern in reports by international organizations.
“In other words, the issue was the high number of people held in pretrial detention and the failure to maintain that proportion,” she said.
Galyan said the change reflected both a slight decline in pretrial detention and an increase in the number of court decisions being issued and entering into legal force.
“We have not had figures like these in the past five years. This indicates that pretrial detention has decreased slightly and also points to something else: more court decisions are being issued and becoming legally binding,” the minister said.
During the discussion, Galyan also addressed improvements to conditions in penitentiary institutions and ongoing renovation work.
“We have carried out renovation work at more than 170 sites in total. Around 70 cells and living quarters have been renovated, along with 10 rooms for short- and long-term visits and more than 20 bathrooms. The renovation work is ongoing, and people serving sentences are involved in it as paid work. This has a positive impact on them within the points-based system.
“This concerns the preparation of reports on conditional early release,” Galyan said.
Lianna Gasparyan, a lawmaker from the Strong Armenia parliamentary faction, raised the planned closure of the Nubarashen and Goris penitentiary institutions and the construction of a new facility to replace them, Panorama.am reports.
“So it turns out that the Nubarashen and Goris penitentiary institutions will be closed with the intention of building a new one,” she said.
Gasparyan asked how the ministry intended to ensure the safety of people held in the institutions until construction of the new penitentiary was completed, particularly in the event of an emergency.
She also raised the issue of budget funding allocated for electronic monitoring equipment, expressing doubts about its effectiveness.
In response, Galyan said geodetic surveys had initially been conducted on land adjacent to the former Erebuni penitentiary institution for the construction of a new facility. The surveys, however, revealed unstable, shifting soil layers that prevented the project from proceeding.
The option of building the new institution in Abovyan was subsequently considered. According to Galyan, a project was developed, but its implementation was postponed because of insufficient funding.
Asked where people currently held at Nubarashen could be accommodated until the new facility was built, the minister said there was currently no alternative for relocating them.
“As for what we should do until the new penitentiary is built, I will say this: nothing. We cannot take these people into our homes; they have to stay there,” Galyan said in response to a question about people held at Nubarashen. She added that some work was underway to improve the living quarters.
Gasparyan again raised concerns about what she described as the hazardous structural condition of the institution, stressing that her questions had no hidden agenda and directly concerned the safety of those held there.
The lawmaker said a possible building collapse could have serious consequences and argued that such risks needed to be assessed in advance.
“As for keeping people at Nubarashen until the building conditions are resolved, I believe they should not be moved to our homes, your home or the home of anyone present here. Rather, given that we have established the building is at risk of collapse, in the best-case scenario, if such an incident occurs — and that possibility is very real — the people held there will be taken to medical institutions instead of graves,” Gasparyan said.
