NEW BUILDING OF PENITENTIARY INSTITUTION IS PUT INTO OPERATION IN
VANADZOR

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The new building of the penitentiary
institution was put into operation in Vanadzor. It is envisaged for
keeping 240 convicts and prisoners. 104 similar people are kept there
at present. The building was built within the framework of the program
on modernization of the penitentiary institutions of Armenia. It is
envisaged to completely implement the program during 12 years. The
total cost of construction works is 1 bln 254.5 mln drams. The value
economy of the designed and factual construction, according to the
information of the Public Relations Department of the RA Justice
Ministry, made 70 mln 835 thousand drams (about 200 thousand
U.S. dollars). The old building of the penitentiary institution was
one of the most ancient places of imprisonment built in the 19th
century. The ground floor of that building was almost not used because
of high dampness, prisoners were maily kept only in cells of the first
floor. As RA Justice Minister Davit Haroutiunian mentioned in the
interview with journalists, the Artik penitentiary institution was
also re-opened recently, within the framework of the program on
modernizations of penitentiary institutions. Probably, the Hrazdan
institution not functioning at present and the Abovian penitentiary
institution will also be reconstructed. In the Minister’s words,
reconstruction of buildings of the rest of penitentiary institutions
is impossible, it is envisaged to build new buildings. In the words of
Ashot Martirosian, the Chief of the Penitentiary Department of the RA
Justice Ministry, there are vacancies with minimum wage of 70 thousand
drams at the Vanadzor penitentiary institution.