Some Lithuanian prisons have a shortage of places to accommodate all those with custodial sentences. In Kaunas Prison, there is a waiting time of around a month.
A court convicted a man of shoplifting and sentenced him to short-term imprisonment. The convict received a letter from Kaunas Prison with information about the sentence.
“You have been ordered to come to the prison independently to serve your custodial sentence. However, please be informed that due to the limited number of places available, inmates are currently not admitted without prior agreement,” the letter reads.
According to Remigijus Aniulis, deputy director of Kaunas Prison, the queues have formed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This situation is due to Covid-19 and disease control. For some time, people sentenced to custody were not admitted at all. This created a sort of a queue,” he told LRT RADIO.
“We are still forced to make those arrangements for serving the sentence. This thing has been going on for over a year,” Aniulis added.
According to him, around 40 people are currently waiting in line to serve their sentences at Kaunas Prison.
Irmina Frolova-Milašienė, a representative of the Prison Department, says that those sentenced also have to wait for a place at Šiauliai and Alytus Prisons.
In her words, reasons other than Covid-19 also influence the formation of queues at Lithuanian prisons.
“[The queues] form because there is a shortage of places. There are a limited number of facilities in which custodial sentences can be served. There are four such facilities in Lithuania with 230 places in total,” Frolova-Milašienė said.
“The flow of detainees is not always evenly distributed. There may be more detainees than there are places,” she added.
People in Lithuania can serve custodial sentences at Kaunas and Šiauliai Prisons, Alytus Correction House and Panevėžys Correction House for women.
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