A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved the draft Penitentiary Code, the adoption of which, according to the substantiation, will become a significant factor in bringing the reforms in the field of criminal justice to a logical completion. In particular, the rules for changing the detention regimes of persons sentenced to imprisonment were revised. Within the framework of this issue, it is planned to introduce a flexible mechanism for gradual change of regimes, from strict regime to mild. In particular, according to the degree of security, 3 types of penitentiaries have been defined by the draft: low, medium, high security types. Mild and strict punishment regimes in penitentiaries are also envisaged. It is proposed to clarify the criteria for keeping convicts separate and to introduce a risk assessment system of their behavior. This implies that the new Penitentiary Code should establish norms that will make release from a penitentiary institution predictable for a convict.

Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the adoption of the bill, noting that it is another significant action in the series of reforms in the sphere of criminal law. "In this regard, I would like to remind you that we have adopted significant reforms related to pre-trial detention and probation service. In the next stage, we should already address the issue of physical infrastructure in the penitentiary sector, because that is one of the most important issues. Our penitentiaries in terms of physical infrastructure, security, security in all respects do not meet the standards that we have set in the laws, in our ideology in general," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also stressed the importance for a mild regime of overcrowding in penitentiaries, noting that this policy should be continued and made more effective. In this context, the Prime Minister stressed the need for control over alternative measures of restraint. "In other words, in the next stage, these people will be under control, their movement will be trackable, which will be a very important factor for preventing crimes. I mean, yes, we're facing those problems right now, but that does not mean we should go back to the old logic, we should move forward. I am convinced that these are very important civilizational, political and socio-psychological changes. We are setting a new standard for our country; we must be consistent on our path of setting that standard," Nikol Pashinyan said.

The Government made a relevant decision, which will allocate 4 billion 750 million AMD for the repair of roads. Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan presented the road construction works that are in the final stage, referred to those planned for 2022.

The Government approved the Public Administration Reform Strategy, the 2022-2024 Roadmap and Outcome framework, the list of persons ensuring the control and coordination of the implementation of the strategy. As the Minister of Justice of Armenia Karen Andreasyan noted, the numerous problems mentioned in the strategy have been objectively diagnosed, all their possible solutions have been given in several stages. According to the Minister, the works envisaged by the strategy will be implemented in 4 directions. Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the strategy of public administration reforms is about the reforms of the state apparatus. "That is, we will try to analyze the work of that apparatus during three years. We registered, although we knew, that there are unnecessary and missing parts in that apparatus, and that apparatus does not meet modern requirements. ”

At today's Cabinet meeting, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the introduction of a new system of social significance in the country in the near future. “I hope we will discuss it in detail at next week's Cabinet meeting. Increasing the effectiveness of social policy is always on our agenda. In this regard, we have some strategic ideas, which are also related to other strategies. You are aware that starting from this year we have increased the amount of non-cash payment of pensions. In the near future we will introduce the following system: discounts should be applied for trading by bank cards for all the pensioners in the republic. If the pensioner trades with a bank card, we will introduce a system of discounts, which has several very important meanings. The first is purely social, the second is the reduction of cash turnover, the third is the analysis of the data of that trade, thanks to which we will be able to make social policy effective, find the most sensitive points for the needs of our pensioners," the Prime Minister said.