May 27, 2005 - 15:03 AMT
PUNISHMENT IS DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY BUT NOT BAD CONDITIONS OF KEEPING PRISONERS
Combating corruption in the criminal-executive system of Armenia has a specific character as the information that is circulating within the system can cause corruption risks, Press Secretary of the Armenian Justice Minister Ara Saghatelian during online interview initiated by OpenArmenia.com and PanARMENIAN.Net. In his words, presently works for minimization of corruption risks are being carried out and a great deal of work has been already done. "Some of the basic directions is the reformation of the legal field, which regulates the interrelations between the prisoners and the administration, the creation of conditions for exercising civic control, and in addition the formation of a group of public observers under the Justice Ministry", A. Saghatelian noted. One of the instruments of combating corruption in the criminal-executive system of Armenia is the conduction of service investigations and calling to account the violators of law on the basis of the information that is coming to the Justice Ministry from various sources", he noted. We proceeded to reforms in jails immediately after the criminal-executive system was taken under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. It follows two principal directions, these being structural and legal", he noted. In his words, the basic concept of reforming of the conditions the prisoners are kept in is that the punishment itself is the deprivation of liberty but not the bad conditions of keeping the prisoners. According to him, presently measures for improving technical conditions for complex resolution of the problems connected with health as well as social-psychological works are being carried out.