A device identifying the person by fingerprint and facial image installed at the Probation Service; home arrest and administrative control as measure of restraint applied; Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan visited the Probation Service to discuss the activities planned for 2023

Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan and Deputy Minister Levon Balyan visited the Central Body of the Probation Service to discuss the activities planned for 2023.

Before starting the discussion, the pilot project implemented at the Department for Re-socialisation and Rehabilitation of the Central Body of the Probation Service was presented to the Minister. A device identifying the person by fingerprint and facial image was installed at the Service checkpoint which enables to identify the beneficiary and record the latter's entry at the Probation service. As a result, saving of time and resources of Probation employees is ensured through this device, as well as the corruption risks are reduced.

In line with the strategy for penitentiary and probation sectors, for the purpose of ensuring the improvement and continuous development of the Probation sector, the activities carried out in the direction of re-socialisation of probation beneficiaries, capacity building of employees of the Probation Service and technical replenishment were emphasised.

The strategic objectives are aimed at creating and developing such preconditions in the penitentiary and probation system, based on which it will be possible to implement the ideology of restorative justice efficiently and in full capacity, ensuring the purposefulness of applying the punishment. Grigor Minasyan attached importance also to the acquisition of electronic control measures for the Probation Service which enable to apply the measures of restraint of home arrest and administrative supervision. The programmes implemented to ensure the effectiveness of re-socialisation process of probation beneficiaries, particularly the importance of the centre opened in Ararat Marz — which enables the probation beneficiaries to learn a profession of the corresponding field, thanks to which they will have a chance to enter the labour market in the future — have been highlighted.

Head of the Probation Service Gevorg Simonyan presented the activities carried out in 2022, in particular, the programmes directed towards the re-socialisation and reintegration into the society of people under control.

It was bilaterally emphasised to outline the main actions aimed at the continuous development of the Probation Service in the new Strategy for 2023-2026.