Prison service rejects claims of unilateral prison reform

The Lithuanian Prison Service says a restructuring of prisons is not being carried out unilaterally or unexpectedly, LRT reports. Officers being moved from Security Management divisions to Resocialisation divisions are being offered other positions if they do not agree to the transfer.

The statement follows comments by Justice Minister Rita Tamašunienė several weeks ago that the restructuring was being imposed. She said trade unions had reported that officers at Kaunas Prison who refused transfers had received notices warning of dismissal.

In a comment to the ELTA news agency, the Prison Service said the changes were part of the long term strategy for Lithuania’s penal enforcement system. It said the restructuring was not intended to reduce security or mechanically cut the number of officers.

The service said the changes were designed to organise the work of the Security Management and Resocialisation divisions more efficiently, allocate staff more rationally, avoid duplicated functions, improve the quality of procedures, strengthen the dynamic security model and increase the share of employees carrying out resocialisation duties.

According to the service, the approach follows its strategic guidelines for 2022 to 2030 and the Justice Ministry’s strategic objectives. Those objectives call for the share of employees carrying out resocialisation-related functions to rise gradually to 24 percent in 2026, 25 percent in 2027 and 26.5 percent in 2028.

The Prison Service said employees had been informed about the changes in 2025. Social partners were briefed at Kaunas Prison on April 7, 2026, followed by a consultation meeting on May 18 involving representatives of the Lithuanian Federation of Law Enforcement Officers. After trade unions submitted additional questions, consultations were extended and the questions were addressed at a further meeting on June 5.

Employees who do not agree to move from the Security Management division to the Resocialisation division are being offered other duties, the service said. Individual proposals are being made to officers whose work arrangements are changing. If an employee refuses to work under the amended conditions, legally prescribed procedures apply, including a warning and an offer of other vacant positions for which the employee is qualified.

The service said it was not yet possible to determine exactly how many officers had agreed to move because individual notification and decision making procedures had not been completed.

It stressed that employees were being offered the opportunity to continue working for the Lithuanian Prison Service rather than leave it. Other vacant positions were also being considered, and employees had already submitted applications for positions for which they could qualify.

The Prison Service also said security at Kaunas Prison would not be reduced as a result of the structural changes. It said the plans took into account the number of positions, workloads, shift arrangements, the needs of supervising prisoners and potential risks.

The service described dynamic security as involving not only physical protection and the number of posts, but also regular contact between employees and prisoners, risk identification, information management, behavioural monitoring and professionally delivered resocialisation.