Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's note:
"Prison diary". quiet life
August 19, 2009, "Yerevan-Kentron" prison
"Satan is not as scary as they say about him." this saying can be applied to "Yerevan-Kentron" penitentiary institution.
This is the prison of the strictest regime in Armenia, but by and large, it is a quiet and peaceful place. And if you are able to philosophically treat the obvious fact of being here, you can even conclude that life here, in general terms, does not differ much from ordinary life. Maybe the colors are more concentrated here, but in the sense of philosophy, it is even good.
In a narrow and small prison cell, it is easier to understand Diogenes, who entered the barrel and stubbornly did not come out. from there it is easier to see how many empty and hollow things we sometimes feel good about, what shameful and empty things we waste our time on, without even guessing about it ourselves.
"Yerevan-Kentron" prison is also the smallest prison in Armenia. The basement part, as I already wrote, was closed a long time ago, and now the regular part of the isolation cell, that is, the part where the cells are, is a long corridor, on both sides of which are placed the cells, the number of which hardly exceeds two dozen. . The so-called corridor is really a corridor and is barely two meters wide.
The size of the prison predetermines that it should have a small staff, and I got the impression from the interactions with that staff that normal people work here. We prisoners mostly communicate with supervisors and shift leaders. mostly they are decent, normal guys, some even give the impression of bright and bright people.
Of course, there are also those who are mentally retarded, and some of them clearly lack education (the lack of education of the head of the "Yerevan-Kentron" prison(...) can be felt, for example), but they are an insignificant percentage, and this pleasantly surprising. From the contact with some of them, you understand that they have never read the legislation and sub-legislative acts regulating the sector.
But this is not a local problem at all, nor even a sector issue. This is a pan-Armenian problem that applies to all areas in the same way. In our country, it is difficult to find a police officer who has read the Laws "On the Police" or "On Service in the Police", it is difficult to find a director of an LLC who has read the charter of the institution he manages, it is not easy to find a journalist who has read the "Mass Media ( I wanted to write the law on "disorders", it is difficult to find a deputy who has read the draft on which he voted. Why, then, should the KPK be free from this pan-Armenian trait?
"Yerevan-Kentron" penitentiary, however, also has such problems, the solution of which requires state intervention. The most important problem is the scarcity of meeting and interrogation rooms. there are only two such rooms in the prison. In these two rooms, investigative operations, meetings of detainees with lawyers and other visitors, meetings with relatives are carried out.
As a result, lawyers who came to meet with their clients, relatives who came to meet sometimes have to wait for hours until the room is free. This would not be the case if the number of such rooms was doubled. KKS does not have a problem of territory. as I have already written, the KGB padwal, that is, the basement part of the prison, is not used, which means that, if desired and financed, several rooms for interrogations and meetings can be furnished here.
In an extreme case, it is even possible to take several rooms from the NSS for this purpose. Why does that idle institution need that huge building?
The next problem of "Yerevan-Kentron" prison, which may even seem funny, is related to the bathroom. There is only one bathroom here with two showers. Two electric geysers are installed, but they do not manage to heat the cold water here. That is why two water heating tanks are installed, the capacity of which is barely 100 liters each. With this amount of water, a maximum of four people can take a bath, after which they have to wait three to four hours for the water to warm up, and four more prisoners have the opportunity to bathe.
In fact, the state does not have the opportunity to install at least an ordinary gas water heater to ensure the continuity of the bath. And although the internal regulations of the correctional facilities provide that the detained persons can use the bathroom services outside of the prescribed period, for a fee, there is no such possibility here. One should still be thankful that there is an opportunity to visit the bathroom once a week. The sanitary condition of the bathroom is a separate topic of conversation. It's true, there are cleaners here, that is, on the staff list of the prison, but the state of the bathroom makes you think that cleaning the bathroom is a chore for the cleaners here...
Laundry is also a chore for washermen, because to clean the linen from their laundry, double dry cleaning will be necessary.
Many paid services approved by the RA government and defined by the internal regulations of the CSIs are absent here. And the possibilities of using the only existing service are simply puzzling. Although the internal regulations of the prisons do not limit the frequency of using the phone in any way, the management of the "Yerevan-Kentron" prison decided that the detained persons should have the opportunity to call only three times a month. In addition, the arrested persons make calls on their own account, with the "Armen-Teli" card phone posted here. For quite some time now, we have been trying to get the order of the director of the prison, by which the right of detainees to call their relatives was limited in such an illogical way.
But it is not possible to get any document with this restriction, which means that we are deprived of the possibility to appeal this restriction. The question is fundamental because it means an illogical limitation of the right. For such restriction, however, the administration of the KPK has its own explanation and justification.
The point is that accompanying detained persons to appointments, meetings, and interrogations is quite a difficult operation. First of all, that process should be documented, we are also searched when going from the cell to the meeting and coming back. During the day, this process practically does not stop, and the number of supervisors is such that they are barely able to serve this very process. And it turns out that they manage to find time to take us to use the phone only once every 10 days. This is complicated by the fact that one of the supervisors has to stay with us in the phone room.
And here, due to their small number, there is no one free to organize the telephone questions at a proper level. Therefore, the aesthetic version of the solution of the issue was chosen. limit the right of detained persons to call as much as possible. However, the administration of the prison did not take into account a small detail. three times a month, it is possible to call home residents from that world, and RA legislation and international conventions, however, stipulate that the CCP must have certain and clear differences from that world.
This question can have two solutions. or new positions of supervisors should be opened, or prisoners should be given the opportunity to call even after the end of the working day. As a result of this change, detained persons should have the opportunity to call at least twice a week. By the way, as far as I know, this problem has been solved in other prisons. Of course, maybe they are institutions of a lighter regime, but it doesn't matter. Is it not limited by any legal act, or should the possibility of calling in closed-mode prisons be restricted?
These are the problems in "Yerevan-Kentron" penitentiary. However, the solution to these problems is not only for those who are here today, but also for the whole society and, first of all, for the government. After all, we should not forget that life is a changeable thing. today you are in solitary confinement, tomorrow you are free, today you are free, tomorrow you are in solitary confinement. Therefore, the solution of the presented issues comes from the interests of every member of society, every official and oligarch.
P.S. Detainees, by the way, are not informed in advance about the days of their calls, and this schedule is actually kept secret from them. This is done, perhaps, in the interests of state security.
