YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. Medical services for imprisoned individuals in correctional facilities will be improved, Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan announced during the January 19 Cabinet meeting, while presenting the concept of modernizing medical services in prisons.

The minister proposed several options of reforms. “First, to provide secondary professional medical aid to incarcerated individuals only in civilian hospitals and shut down the “Hospital for Convicts” Penitentiary and second – re-equip the penitentiary and transforms it to a medical institution”, she said.

The concept also suggests revising the list of serious diseases which hinder serving the sentence of convicts, procedures of appealing, legal regulations of releasing convicts based on illness. It is planned to make legal regulations regarding prisoners on hunger strike – with special attention on mandatory treatment and food.

Appropriate legislative changes are proposed to be implemented as a possible variant of reforms, shifting the function of medical treatment in penitentiaries from the jurisdiction of the department of correctional facilities to either the Justice Ministry or the direct jurisdiction of the Government.