{"id":8893,"date":"2017-07-31T08:57:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T08:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T15:44:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T15:44:19","slug":"urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Lithuania violated Article 3<\/a> (“no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”) of the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

The group of prisoners who won the case are pleased with the results \u2013 now, Lithuania will have to make changes to its legal system or face sanctions. However, it is open to debate whether Lithuania will take real action in the end.<\/p>\n

Following the ECtHR judgment, life prisoners in Lithuania should expect their cases to be reviewed after 25 years in prison, with the possibility of parole being on the table.<\/p>\n

Currently, no one save for the president may commute a sentence under Lithuanian law. Those seeking a presidential pardon may be set free, have their prison term reduced or sentence commuted.<\/p>\n

To humanize the system of incarceration, the introduction of parole should be added to the political agenda.<\/p>\n

Prisoners face stigma<\/h1>\n

Unfortunately, the public views former prisoners extremely unfavorably \u2013 according to data from 2015<\/a>, almost 60 percent of Lithuanians would not want to live in proximity to former prisoners, and nearly 44 percent would not want to work in the same workplace.<\/p>\n

Former prisoners often face the greatest social barriers in Lithuanian society – 66 percent of all residents claim that they view this group unfavorably or very unfavorably.<\/p>\n

“We are a very unpopular segment of society, and it is very dangerous for any politician to talk about us positively, even in the sense of simply making some improvements. Revenge is still very often on people\u2019s minds. They say that we need tougher conditions, more severe punishments \u2013 forget about improvements of any kind,” Audrius, a current prisoner, told news site Bernardinai.lt.<\/p>\n

Current system is defective<\/h1>\n

According to the experts, in the 27 years Lithuania has been independent, there have been no changes to the prison system, and it still falls quite short of European standards.<\/p>\n

“Lithuanian prisons are still home to a hierarchical prisoner system, a leftover from Soviet times. They haven\u2019t even been able to make individual cells to get rid of it,” said the chairman of the Lithuanian Prisoner Protection Society.<\/p>\n

Once people serve their sentence, it\u2019s less like returning to society and more like going to crime school \u2013 when they\u2019re isolated from society, it is unlikely that they will successfully adapt, especially when a significant portion of the population does not support them.<\/p>\n

In many cases, people who leave prison simply have no place to return or any person to contact, and may return to crime out of sheer desperation.<\/p>\n

“Although we have a very low incidence of parole, the rate of recidivism is also fairly small, so we seemingly should be more bold in allowing people to reintegrate into society \u2013 however, so far, if we look to the total number of prisoners, parole is only granted to 20-30 percent of convicts, which is way below the EU average,” said Karolis Liutkevi\u010dius, a lawyer from the Human Rights Monitoring Institute.<\/p>\n

Tiptoeing towards change<\/h1>\n

Still, halfway houses began operating in four Lithuanian cities last year. They allow prisoners exhibiting exemplary behavior to develop social skills, learn cooperation, and find work with the help of social workers.<\/p>\n

And while this opportunity is only available to a small percentage of those who have been released on parole, this is still a small step towards helping them fully return to social life.<\/p>\n

We can only hope that the Lithuanian prison system will soon become better for convicts, with more people being given a real chance to reform.<\/p>\n

Article written with reference to this source<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Lithuania violated Article 3 (“no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The group of prisoners who won the case are pleased with the results \u2013 now, Lithuania will have …<\/p>\n

Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[127,175],"tags":[163],"yoast_head":"\nUrgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few months ago, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Lithuania violated Article 3 (“no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The group of prisoners who won the case are pleased with the results \u2013 now, Lithuania will have … Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System Read More »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HRMI.LT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/prison_hope_court_release_life_sentence.png_effected.png.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/892e372bade860878571028f96ab03a9\"},\"headline\":\"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\"},\"wordCount\":610,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"criminal law\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Our work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\",\"name\":\"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/\",\"name\":\"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\",\"description\":\"hrmi.lt\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-HRMI-logo-EN-baltas-tekstas-1-1-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-HRMI-logo-EN-baltas-tekstas-1-1-1.png\",\"width\":1111,\"height\":577,\"caption\":\"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HRMI.LT\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/892e372bade860878571028f96ab03a9\",\"name\":\"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14f189c5bb42a5530e5f8df12759e5c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14f189c5bb42a5530e5f8df12759e5c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/author\/deimante\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","og_description":"A few months ago, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Lithuania violated Article 3 (“no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The group of prisoners who won the case are pleased with the results \u2013 now, Lithuania will have … Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System Read More »","og_url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/","og_site_name":"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HRMI.LT","article_published_time":"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1050,"height":553,"url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/prison_hope_court_release_life_sentence.png_effected.png.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/"},"author":{"name":"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/892e372bade860878571028f96ab03a9"},"headline":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System","datePublished":"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/"},"wordCount":610,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization"},"keywords":["criminal law"],"articleSection":["News","Our work"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/","url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/","name":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania's Outdated Prison System - \u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-31T08:57:14+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-16T15:44:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/urgent-changes-needed-to-reform-lithuanias-outdated-prison-system\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Urgent Changes Needed to Reform Lithuania’s Outdated Prison System"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/","name":"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","description":"hrmi.lt","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#organization","name":"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas","url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-HRMI-logo-EN-baltas-tekstas-1-1-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-HRMI-logo-EN-baltas-tekstas-1-1-1.png","width":1111,"height":577,"caption":"\u017dmogaus teisi\u0173 steb\u0117jimo institutas"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HRMI.LT"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/892e372bade860878571028f96ab03a9","name":"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14f189c5bb42a5530e5f8df12759e5c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14f189c5bb42a5530e5f8df12759e5c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deimant\u0117 Ju\u0161\u010di\u016bt\u0117"},"url":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/author\/deimante\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11949,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8893\/revisions\/11949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrmi.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}