Today there is a historical minimum number of arrestees and convicts in Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the government, adding that it is owing to this that today they are able to make a decision and shut down the Kosh and Hrazdan Penitentiaries.

"There are inhumane conditions in some of our penitentiaries, particularly at Kosh and Hrazdan, and arrestees were held in inhumane conditions," he said.

Pashinyan noted that Armenia’s prisons are criminal manufacturing enterprises.

"That is, a person might end up there by an accidental incident, and come out of there as a professional criminal or a trained criminal," Pashinyan explained.