Assessment of the implementation of the Government’s project “A New Generation of Penal Institutions”

• More than 60% of persons are serving a prison sentence for more than the first time.
• All places of detention are understaffed by 20.5%.
• In 6 prisons, more than 50% of the prisoners have less than four square metres of living space.

The number of convicted persons has been decreasing over the last four years, but the number of persons serving a prison sentence for more than the first time account for almost two thirds. There is a shortage of staff in places of detention, the process of improving resocialisation is slowing down, infrastructure modernisation projects are delayed, and EUR 857,800 from the state budget has been used to compensate for damages for inadequate detention conditions. These are the results of the National Audit Office's assessment of the implementation of the Government's project "A New Generation of the Penal Institutions".

"The Government has initiated a reform of the penal system to reduce recidivism, improve prison conditions and the quality of re-socialisation. However, not all progress measures have been allocated funding, and the vision and directions of the transformation are being implemented through strategic and annual action plans which do not cover the long term (by 2030) transformation actions. This type of planning and implementation does not allow to ensure consistency of the transformation and to monitor whether sufficient progress has been made", says Mindaugas Macijauskas, Auditor General.

The aim of imprisonment is to protect society from crime and to reduce recidivism, but in 2020-2023, the proportion of non-first-time offenders was more than 60%. In 2020, the proportion was 67%, and in 2023, 67.4%.

According to the auditors, all places of detention are 20.5% understaffed (481 out of 2 342) and 29% understaffed (134 out of 469) in resocialisation units. Adequate staffing is important both for ensuring a safe environment in prisons and for an effective resocialisation process.

One of the initiatives in the Government's programme is the development of a network of open-type penal institutions (halfway houses) to facilitate the integration of prisoners completing their sentences into society. Eight halfway houses have already been set up and the number of inmates transferred to them is increasing. However, the development of halfway houses (objectives, performance indicators) is not foreseen in the implementation plan of the Government Programme or in the Justice System Development Programme. The remaining 12 halfway houses are not foreseen to be financed or located.

According to the auditors, the share of modernised prisons is increasing (31% in 2020, 52% in 2023), but the construction of two prisons planned to be built by 2030 has not started, and the modular houses, which were supposed to improve the living conditions of more than 280 prisoners, have not been purchased. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) identifies that in six prisons, more than 50% of the prisoners have less than the recommended minimum living space of four square metres.

The National Audit Office has made observations to the Ministry of Justice and the Lithuanian Prison Service that could contribute to ensuring that changes in the penal enforcement system are implemented in a consistent and timely manner in order to reduce recidivism.