Issues on institutions of probation and early conditional release discussed

On 30 May, Deputy Minister of Justice Tigran Khachikyan participated in a round-table discussion on the topic of "Perception of probation and the issues of early conditional release in Armenia". Head of the Probation Service of the Ministry of Justice Arsen Navasardyan, Director of Civil Society Institute NGO, Chairperson of the Board of the “Support to Probation” National Network Artak Kirakosyan, Director of Social Justice NGO, member of the Network Arshak Gasparyan, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Justice and civil society representatives also participated in the discussion.

Deputy Minister Khachikyan greeted the participants of the event, attached importance to the organising of discussions in this format and emphasised that this serves as an effective platform for “inventorising” sector-specific issues and outlining the benchmarks to provide appropriate solutions. Touching upon the existing
sector-specific issues, the Deputy Minister set aside reinterpretation of the legal status of the Probation Service.

"The Probation Service is not merely a body executing a punishment. Consequently, the execution of punishment by the Service must be combined with the introduction and application of the necessary social-psychological toolkit, as a result of which the probation beneficiary will be re-integrated into society," Tigran Khachikyan noted, assuring that the Ministry of Justice will be consistent with the ensuring of the implementation of effective recommendations made during the discussion.

During the meeting, Head of the Probation Service Arsen Navasardyan touched upon the issues on staff training and the development of mechanisms for staff training, and Artak Kirakosyan and Arshak Gasparyan, respectively, presented the results of the "Perception of the Probation Service by probation beneficiaries" study and the developed amendments to the procedure for early conditional release.