Armenia leads Europe in growth of probation use

Armenia is among the leaders in Europe in terms of increasing probation use, according to a report by the Council of Europe published last Thursday.

Armenia experienced a 65% increase in probation population rates last year, the highest rate among Council of Europe member countries with populations over 500,000 people. It also recorded the highest ratio in Europe of people on probation to those behind bars, with 492 probationers per 100 inmates. Armenia was followed by Poland (344) and the Netherlands (313).

In its press release on the statistics, the Council of Europe stressed that it has long supported the use of alternatives to imprisonment, as they can effectively help integrate offenders into society and improve the functioning of prison systems.

However, these figures alone are not necessarily proof of success.

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“As far as I’m concerned, these indicators show a positive trend, but are not unconditional proof of the reforms’ success. [Armenia’s growing probation rates] indicate that alternative measures to imprisonment are now being applied much more widely in Armenia, which is in line with the modern European approach that views incarceration as a last resort measure. 

However, quantitative indicators alone are not sufficient to assess how effective the system is. It is necessary to evaluate whether probation is actually replacing imprisonment, or merely expanding the scope of criminal justice control,” Zaruhi Hovhannisyan, a human rights activist and member of the Prison Monitoring Group Armenia NGO, said in a comment for CivilNet.

Her assessment echoed the interpretation of the professionals behind the report.

“There is no ‘magic formula’ to estimate an appropriate rate of probationers for a jurisdiction. Alternatives to imprisonment aim to favor the social inclusion of offenders by keeping them in the community. Consequently, the probation rate cannot be interpreted without comparing it to the prison population rate,” explained Professor Marcelo Aebi, who leads the research team at the University of Lausanne that compiles prison population statistics for the Council of Europe.

“It is important to understand whether Armenia's probation system has sufficient resources to ensure proper supervision and support for those under its oversight, whether it contributes to their reintegration, and whether it leads to a reduction in reoffending. Therefore, it’s early days to say the reforms have succeeded. They’ve reached an important stage in their development, no doubt, but the effectiveness should be assessed not only through statistics, but also through qualitative outcomes,” Hovhannisyan concluded.