There are 5,000 people in Armenian prisons, which is 900 more than last year, Armenian Minister of Justice Gevork Daniyelyan said, discussing the projected state budget for 2011, News Armenia reports.
According to the information from the 1st of June 2010, there were over 4,700 prisoners, over 1,300 of of whom had been arrested.
The minister said that this is an extraordinary situation. He pointed out that the USA has approximately 700 sentenced per 100,000 population, while Georgia has 420.
Daniyelyan also denied that the commission for pardoning makes wrong decisions.
The minister said that $2.7 million will be issued in 2011 for construction of a prison in Goris for 320 prisoners and that another one will be built in Armavir.
Armenia approved the state budget project for 2011 on September 30. Armenia will have expenditure of 998.6 billion drams and an income of 850 billion drams, thus running a deficit of 148.6 billion drams. GDP growth in 2011 is expected to be 4.6%.
