In a new report on Lithuania the Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) again raises concerns over the numerous allegations of serious inter-prisoner violence and the ineffectiveness of measures taken to address the roots of the problem. It also underlines the need to significantly speed up the process of modernising the prison estate and especially its conversion to cell-type accommodation (see the executive summary of the report).
The report contains the CPT's findings of its periodic visit to Lithuania in December 2021, focusing on the treatment and conditions of detention of persons held in police and prison establishments as well as the situation of persons in foreigners' registration centres. The delegation also reviewed the use of means of restraints and legal safeguards offered to involuntary patients in the context of civil psychiatry.
In their response, the Lithuanian authorities set out the measures taken or envisaged to implement the recommendations made by the Committee in the report, including further modernisation of the prison estate, latest amendments to the Code of Execution of Sentences, integration of violence prevention measures in prisons, etc. The CPT report and the response of the Lithuanian authorities have been made public at the request of the Lithuanian Government.
