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The establishment of a probation service in Armenia aims to transform criminal justice into restorative justice, thanks to which we may have human-focused justice instead of justice focused on acts, the chairwoman of Protection of Rights without Borders NGO Hasmik Harutyunyan.

According to her, the  probation service establishment concept submitted by the government involves some risks, which should be promptly addressed at the discussion stage.  Reduction of prison overcrowding is one of the key tasks in the sphere and requires urgent solution, but resolution of this problem should not be the main purpose of introducing a probation service.  

Prison overcrowding reduction should be a consequence of efficient work of the probation service,” H. Harutyunyan stressed.

Chairman of Civil Society Institute NGO Arman Danielyan also pointed out that there are many problems in the probation service establishment concept.

“I am not sure that our authorities fully understand what a probation service is. No one will benefit from changing only the signboard. There is concern that it may turn into a formal system. It is necessary to understand that in case of introducing a probation system, the service should have experts, operating tools, and restorative programs,” he noted.

According to Chairman of Social Justice NGO Arshak Gasparyan, since 2012 the concept circulated in various departments, it was amended and then presented to the government.

“Great political will is needed for establishment of the probation service, which aims to add quality to criminal, in particular punitive, justice. Besides, the introduction of the probation service will have a great impact on criminal, judicial reforms. That system may perform the function of a balloon by raising and developing the court, prosecutor, investigative and prison systems,” he said.

Head of Division for Implementation of Alternative Sanctions of Armenian Justice Ministry’s Penitentiary Department, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Levon Avetisyan said that if their intention was to just announce that such a system is introduced, they would have done it long ago.

“We want to have a probation service with all the four stages: pre-trail, trial, penitentiary, and pre-penitentiary stages,” he said.

In his words, in order for the probation service to work, judges need to change their mentality a bit and send perpetrators of medium-gravity crimes to the probation service, and not prison.

At the conclusion of the discussion A. Danielyan said in his speech: “Pilot programs will start in two places soon.  I call on the ministry and NGOs to support that service. If it fails to function and proves inefficient at once, then I am afraid that it will not be a success later”.

 It should be noted that Support to the Establishment of Probation Service in Armenia” project is implemented by the Council of Europe and funded by the Government of Norway through the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norwegian MFA).