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Lithuania has not built a single new prison during the period of independence. More than one government has promised to build a prison, but this promise has not been fulfilled so far. Not only convicts, but also officers working in them complain about the conditions of prisons, they also say that the existing infrastructure does not provide for the needs of convicts established by law, therefore convicts vent their dissatisfaction on officers, using emotional and physical violence against them.
However, the Ministry of Justice questioned whether Lithuania currently needs to build a new prison, even considering that the construction of the prison has already started.
However, the Ministry of Justice is doubting whether Lithuania needs a new modern prison, in the light of the current geopolitical situation and the need to increase defense spending.
Therefore, the Future of a New Prison in Lithuania is unclear. Several cases were won against three contractors who appealed the determination of the winner of the Šiauliai Prison construction project. Contractors can still appeal court decisions. Currently, the public procurement procedure for the construction of the Šiauliai Prison is suspended and is pending until the court decisions come into force.
The Lithuanian Prison Service declares that the Ministerial decision to terminate the project is a political decision. The Lithuanian Prison Service is the implementer of the decisions. If the decision to terminate the public procurement is delegated, the Lithuanian Prison Service, having no choice, will implement it with all the consequences of legitimate expectations arising from this, the Lithuanian Prison Service stated in its comment.
However, Lithuanian Prison Service reminded that Lithuania has been criticized by international institutions for the infrastructure of prisons in the country and the conditions of imprisonment there. According to the Lithuanian Prison Service, Lithuania still pays compensation to convicts serving their sentences in the Šiauliai Prison, built in 1911.
“The strategy for the development of the penal system pays much attention to improving infrastructure, as the Council of Europe’s Committee against Torture provides Lithuania with strict recommendations, indicating that Lithuania’s prison infrastructure is a form of slavery.”
In February 2024, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture expressed concern about the violence between prisoners observed in the country’s prisons. The committee’s report highlights shortcomings in the recording and investigation of violence between prisoners, as well as the multifaceted causes of such violence: the use of illegal drugs, an informal hierarchy of prisoners, and a completely inadequate presence of prison staff in living quarters.
Source and photo – www.lrt.lt
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Report to the Lithuanian Government on the visit to Lithuania carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 12 to 22 February 2024
9. The findings of the 2024 visit set out in this report indicate that the Lithuanian authorities have taken a number of steps to address the above-mentioned problems. However, the situation observed in the four prisons visited demonstrates that with legal and organisational changes alone only partial progress can be made. It is clear that substantial financial resources must now be committed in order to finally and fully address these problems. With a view to achieve a genuine reform of the Lithuanian prison system, far greater resources are needed to accelerate the reconstruction of prisons from dormitory-type to cellular-type accommodation and, most importantly, to significantly increase staffing levels. A substantially larger custodial staff presence in detention areas is required to significantly reduce inter-prisoner violence and to prevent illegal drugs from being smuggled into prison, traded and consumed. The Lithuanian authorities must demonstrate concrete and sustained efforts to tackle these challenging issues if they are to persuade the Committee not to resort to a public statement under the procedure enshrined in Article 10, paragraph 2 of the Convention establishing the CPT.
16. In February 2022, the Director of the Prison Department4 approved the Strategic Activity Guidelines of the Prison Department for 2022-2030. The preamble of the document acknowledges that, since 2000 (when the management of the prison system was transferred from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice), there were several strategic documents adopted by the Lithuanian Government aimed at modernising the prison system. The Guidelines list a number of goals approved by these strategic documents which have, unfortunately, not been achieved. These include the complete reconstruction of Pravieniškės Prison, Alytus Prison, and the main site of Kaunas Prison, closing Marijampolė Prison, opening prisons in Klaipėda (with up to 800 places), near Vilnius (with up to 1620 places), in Šiauliai (with up to 1180 places), in Panevėžys (with up to 400 places), and opening a new Training Centre.
The CPT would like to stress that it has serious misgivings about the construction of very large prison complexes, which have historically proven difficult to manage and unable to deliver the targeted services required of the various population groups within them. The design of the various components of the complex and the management structure will be essential to avoid possible negative implications for day-to-day contact between prisoners and staff, opportunities for the delivery of a purposeful regime and prisoners’ contact with the outside world.
17. During the 2024 visit, the delegation was informed that since 2020, 661 places were converted from dormitory-type into cellular-type accommodation and that by the end of 2027 1041 more places would be similarly converted.
Moreover, a public-private partnership contract for the construction of a new Šiauliai Prison which will replace the existing one is expected to be signed in 2024, with the prison to be built by 2027.
The CPT has repeatedly expressed its view that the risk of intimidation and violence is higher in large-capacity prison dormitories and that such accommodation arrangements are prone to foster the evolution of prison subculture and to facilitate the maintenance and cohesion of criminal organisational structures.
Further, apart from also rendering proper staff control extremely difficult, if not impossible, such accommodation also inevitably results in a lack of privacy for prisoners in their everyday lives.
The Committee once again calls upon the Lithuanian authorities to take all possible measures to significantly speed up the process of modernising their prison estate and especially its conversion to cellular-type accommodation.
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