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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #725
March 1 2014
Successful Young Offender Scheme Ends as Cash Runs Out
Everyone agrees community-based rehabilitation has worked, but the
government doesn't have the money to pick up the costs.
By Haykuhi Barseghyan - Caucasus
CRS Issue 725,
1 Mar 14
The closure of support centres for juvenile offenders across Armenia
due to the end of donor funding could lead to a rise in youth crime,
experts say.
With limited resources itself, the government has decided to focus on
creating a youth probation service. But the start-date for that has
been put back, leaving a gap in which there will be no alternatives to
detention for young offenders.
Rehabilitation centres for minors in trouble with the law were set up
from 2006 onwards under two different donor-funded programmes, both of
which ended in January 2014.
The PH (Project Harmony) International organisation set up 11 centres,
in Chambarak, Talin, Artashat, Ijevan, Echmiadzin, Kapan, Vanadzor,
Alaverdi, Gyumri and Metsamor, funded by the US State Department. In
2011-13, the Armenian Aid Foundation set up two more, in the capital
Yerevan and the town of Abovyan.
Instead of detaining and charging young offenders, police were given
the option of sending them to one of these centres, where they would
be given community service work.
Everyone involved in dealing with youth offenders seems to agree the
centres proved their worth.
"Assessments that we and the police have done show that the centres
had a 94 per cent success rate. Police officers say the centres have
helped prevent criminal behaviour and repeat offences," Mariam
Martirosyan, director of the Armenian branch of PH International,
said.
In a written response to IWPR, the Armenian police force's public
affairs department said, "The centres are unique in that police,
social workers, psychologists and volunteer staff work together to
carry out a broad range of work with juvenile offenders. The basic aim
behind the centres is to place adolescents in an environment where the
emphasis is on considering ethical and human values and raising their
self-esteem."
The figures seem to bear out the effectiveness of the new approach.
The number of minors committing offences fell from 453 in 2011 to 349
in 2012 and a similar 352 last year. Repeat offences by convicted
juvenile offenders fell from eight in 2011 to zero the following year,
with two recorded in 2013. There are no statistics for the number of
convicted juveniles who reoffend as adults over the age of 18.
Tatevik Gharibyan, a lawyer with the Institue for Civil Society and
co-author of a report on how juvenile offenders are questioned in
court, agrees that the effect has been positive.
"Thanks to the community rehabilitation centres, the number of repeat
offences among young people has fallen. The children get the support
they need and they alter their behaviour, in contrast to those who end
up in correction centres for juvenile offenders," she said.
Alvard Petrosyan, director of the youth centre in Abovyan, says that
not one repeat offence by a minor has taken place in the town in the
last three years, thanks to close cooperation between her centre, the
police and the municipal child protection department.
Alone, she said, the police simply did not have the resources to cope
with juvenile offenders. "With the closure of these centres, we have
lost one more mechanism for preventing crime," she said. "Police
stations are not in a position to carry out thorough crime-prevention
measures themselves. We need an organisation that will work with
children whose life circumstances are difficult."
Martirosyan said that while she regretted the closure of the rehab
centres, she understood why the government had decided to concentrate
its resources on a probation system.
"The government says the number of crimes committed by minors isn't
large enough to necessitate the creation of a separate resource. It is
good and effective work, but we realise that the government isn't rich
enough to run centres like these in every community," she said.
The probation service has been conceived as an independent arm of the
justice ministry that will work with young offenders. It was due to
launch in January, but IWPR was unable to find anyone at the justice
ministry who could say when this would now happen, or what stage a
supporting piece of legislation had reached.
According to Gharibyan, the only alternative to the now-closed
rehabilitation centres and the planned probation system is detention
in a juvenile offenders' institution.
At the moment, she said, the picture was one of "frequent use of
arrest and incarceration", "a lack of effective alternative
punishments" for minors, and a failure to ensure that penalties were
designed to re-educate young offenders and reintegrate them into
society.
Gharibyan noted that as an alternative to custody, the courts could
impose fines or assign a young offender to a "special educational
institution". But she argues that "fines are ineffective because it's
the parents who are responsible for paying, and the latter provision
isn't used because these educational institutions don't actually
exist".
The town of Abovyan is home to a juvenile penal institution which
currently has 16 inmates. Ten of them are on a vocational training
scheme run by the Special Creative Centre for Juvenile Offenders,
which the justice ministry set up in 2007.
The centre's director Gayane Hovakimyan said that this year the plan
is to extend support programmes to young offenders after they are
released, and after they have reached the 18.
Hovakimyan said this step had been taken in recognition of the lack of
state support for offenders once they are released. This made things
especially hard for young adults who had spent time in a young
offenders' institution, she explained, since their education was
likely to be deficient, they had few friends and social support
networks, and they were generally ill-equipped for life in the real
world.
"We are working with children, but it all comes to an end once they
are released," Hovakimyan said. "They might learn a trade while in
detention, but they still need help to be able to make money from it
on the outside."
One of the young people in the Abokyan institution is due for release
in three months' time, and will be the first to benefit from the
centre's continuing support programme, including assistance with
finding work.
Haykuhi Barseghyan is a reporter for the Armenian weekly Ankakh and
its web version.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/successful-young-offender-scheme-ends-cash-runs-out
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #725
March 1 2014
Successful Young Offender Scheme Ends as Cash Runs Out
Everyone agrees community-based rehabilitation has worked, but the
government doesn't have the money to pick up the costs.
By Haykuhi Barseghyan - Caucasus
CRS Issue 725,
1 Mar 14
The closure of support centres for juvenile offenders across Armenia
due to the end of donor funding could lead to a rise in youth crime,
experts say.
With limited resources itself, the government has decided to focus on
creating a youth probation service. But the start-date for that has
been put back, leaving a gap in which there will be no alternatives to
detention for young offenders.
Rehabilitation centres for minors in trouble with the law were set up
from 2006 onwards under two different donor-funded programmes, both of
which ended in January 2014.
The PH (Project Harmony) International organisation set up 11 centres,
in Chambarak, Talin, Artashat, Ijevan, Echmiadzin, Kapan, Vanadzor,
Alaverdi, Gyumri and Metsamor, funded by the US State Department. In
2011-13, the Armenian Aid Foundation set up two more, in the capital
Yerevan and the town of Abovyan.
Instead of detaining and charging young offenders, police were given
the option of sending them to one of these centres, where they would
be given community service work.
Everyone involved in dealing with youth offenders seems to agree the
centres proved their worth.
"Assessments that we and the police have done show that the centres
had a 94 per cent success rate. Police officers say the centres have
helped prevent criminal behaviour and repeat offences," Mariam
Martirosyan, director of the Armenian branch of PH International,
said.
In a written response to IWPR, the Armenian police force's public
affairs department said, "The centres are unique in that police,
social workers, psychologists and volunteer staff work together to
carry out a broad range of work with juvenile offenders. The basic aim
behind the centres is to place adolescents in an environment where the
emphasis is on considering ethical and human values and raising their
self-esteem."
The figures seem to bear out the effectiveness of the new approach.
The number of minors committing offences fell from 453 in 2011 to 349
in 2012 and a similar 352 last year. Repeat offences by convicted
juvenile offenders fell from eight in 2011 to zero the following year,
with two recorded in 2013. There are no statistics for the number of
convicted juveniles who reoffend as adults over the age of 18.
Tatevik Gharibyan, a lawyer with the Institue for Civil Society and
co-author of a report on how juvenile offenders are questioned in
court, agrees that the effect has been positive.
"Thanks to the community rehabilitation centres, the number of repeat
offences among young people has fallen. The children get the support
they need and they alter their behaviour, in contrast to those who end
up in correction centres for juvenile offenders," she said.
Alvard Petrosyan, director of the youth centre in Abovyan, says that
not one repeat offence by a minor has taken place in the town in the
last three years, thanks to close cooperation between her centre, the
police and the municipal child protection department.
Alone, she said, the police simply did not have the resources to cope
with juvenile offenders. "With the closure of these centres, we have
lost one more mechanism for preventing crime," she said. "Police
stations are not in a position to carry out thorough crime-prevention
measures themselves. We need an organisation that will work with
children whose life circumstances are difficult."
Martirosyan said that while she regretted the closure of the rehab
centres, she understood why the government had decided to concentrate
its resources on a probation system.
"The government says the number of crimes committed by minors isn't
large enough to necessitate the creation of a separate resource. It is
good and effective work, but we realise that the government isn't rich
enough to run centres like these in every community," she said.
The probation service has been conceived as an independent arm of the
justice ministry that will work with young offenders. It was due to
launch in January, but IWPR was unable to find anyone at the justice
ministry who could say when this would now happen, or what stage a
supporting piece of legislation had reached.
According to Gharibyan, the only alternative to the now-closed
rehabilitation centres and the planned probation system is detention
in a juvenile offenders' institution.
At the moment, she said, the picture was one of "frequent use of
arrest and incarceration", "a lack of effective alternative
punishments" for minors, and a failure to ensure that penalties were
designed to re-educate young offenders and reintegrate them into
society.
Gharibyan noted that as an alternative to custody, the courts could
impose fines or assign a young offender to a "special educational
institution". But she argues that "fines are ineffective because it's
the parents who are responsible for paying, and the latter provision
isn't used because these educational institutions don't actually
exist".
The town of Abovyan is home to a juvenile penal institution which
currently has 16 inmates. Ten of them are on a vocational training
scheme run by the Special Creative Centre for Juvenile Offenders,
which the justice ministry set up in 2007.
The centre's director Gayane Hovakimyan said that this year the plan
is to extend support programmes to young offenders after they are
released, and after they have reached the 18.
Hovakimyan said this step had been taken in recognition of the lack of
state support for offenders once they are released. This made things
especially hard for young adults who had spent time in a young
offenders' institution, she explained, since their education was
likely to be deficient, they had few friends and social support
networks, and they were generally ill-equipped for life in the real
world.
"We are working with children, but it all comes to an end once they
are released," Hovakimyan said. "They might learn a trade while in
detention, but they still need help to be able to make money from it
on the outside."
One of the young people in the Abokyan institution is due for release
in three months' time, and will be the first to benefit from the
centre's continuing support programme, including assistance with
finding work.
Haykuhi Barseghyan is a reporter for the Armenian weekly Ankakh and
its web version.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/successful-young-offender-scheme-ends-cash-runs-out