Armenia: Women Do Time in “Model Prison”

Just outside Yerevan, there is a small zoo whose inmates include a llama, a peacock and a couple of pythons. What’s unusual about it is that it’s part of a woman’s prison, the only one in Armenia.

The authorities claim the Abovian camp is a model prison and that its 70 inmates have some of the best conditions in the former Soviet Union. Human rights activists agree that things are a lot better than they used to be, but say much more needs to be done for conditions to meet international standards.

An IWPR contributor who visited the prison camp last week found it a strange place, with a large aquarium as well as a zoo, and an area where pigs and rabbits are raised for food.

But perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the prison is that nearly half the women are in for murder rather than the more usual lesser crimes.

Part of the explanation may be that women are very rarely imprisoned in Armenia, and the country’s new criminal code stipulates that they should not serve more than 15 years. But those convicted of grave crimes such as murder are not eligible for early release under amnesty.

Voski is a 78-year-old woman serving a sentence for murder. “I was born in Azerbaijan and became a refugee. My husband used to abuse me so I went and killed him,” she told IWPR. Another inmate recently killed her mother-in-law.

In the prison it’s widely believed that you can tell who is serving a murder sentences because they are the most beautiful.

“Women are more cruel,” said deputy prison governor Rostom Mnatsakanian, a man. “There is one woman here who killed her husband and cut him into 90 pieces, into tiny bits. And when they asked her why, she said she was fed up with him.”

The prisoners are held in large rooms lined with beds rather than small cells. The atmosphere gloomy and with so many people around, privacy is almost non-existent.

Prisoners told IWPR that life has improved at Abovian since the camp was transferred from the jurisdiction of the interior ministry to the justice ministry.

Prison officials say that inmates have the right to work and earn a small wage, and that they also have computer classes and use of the internet, access to a psychologist and a health clinic, and regular visits by Armenian priests.

“We have here what many people outside don’t even have – hot water, enough food, and the right to see our children,” said Arevik, a pleasant young woman who is another of those serving time for murder. Her sister is doing time in the prison, and she also has her young daughter who was born here.

“We understand that nothing can replace freedom, but we are still trying to provide them with a human existence,” said Mnatsakanian. “Thank God, there is much more order in the [prison] camps in Armenia than in other Commonwealth of Independent States countries.”

A few days after IWPR’s visit, the prison marked International Women’s Day – March 8 – with a gift of pearls for all the women from Armenian church leader Catholicos Garegin II and a concert, and children were allowed to visit their mothers for a couple of days.

However, Avetik Ishkhanian, head of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee, said that the Armenian prisons including this one did not yet measure up to international standards.

“It’s true, it’s become somewhat better now, but the inmates are still deprived of newspapers, books and any contact with the outside world. They can only use the telephone for 20 minutes a month,” he said.

Mikael Danielian, who heads another human rights group, the Helsinki Association, agreed that overall, conditions have improved at Abovian, but he noted,“There is no decent room here for meetings. And when they complain about this to the management, they say there is no money. It’s interesting, there’s money for an aquarium and greenhouses, but not for normal rooms.”

Danielian continued, “The furniture is old, the cells don’t get any air, there are 10 to 15 people in one room, and in the [nearby] children’s [detention] camp, all 68 inmates sleep in one room.

“They [the women] have hot water, but bath day is only once a week, so standards of sanitation are terrible. And why do they have computers if they can’t use them?”

Each cell also has an informer who listens to everything the others say – they won’t say who she is or point her out, but simply call her “mother”.

Everyone agrees, though, that life at Abovian is much better than in the men’s prison at Kosh, where tuberculosis is rife and general living conditions are much worse.

“We always hope that those who have served their sentence won’t come back here, but it doesn’t always work that way,” said deputy governor Mnatasakanian. “Around a quarter of the prisoners come back. Maybe they’ve got used to it here.”

Karine Ter-Saakian is a journalist with the Respublika Armenii newspaper in Yerevan