Kairys says officers’ ties with prisoners are not systemic

Relationships between two prison officers and convicted prisoners are isolated cases rather than a systemic problem, Lithuania’s Prison Service chief Mindaugas Kairys told LRT Radio on Tuesday.

He said most of the service’s employees are professionals and receive regular training to recognise manipulation, corruption risks and breaches of professional ethics. The Prison Service has about 3,000 employees, around half of them officers, Kairys said.

He added that the service was assessing the two cases to determine what opportunities the employees had accessed and what risks they might have created. The review is intended to identify measures to prevent similar incidents or reduce their frequency.

In July, two prison officers left their jobs over close, romantic and intimate relationships with convicted prisoners. A catering company employee also lost permission to enter a prison.

The Prison Service said inspections initiated at Vilnius Prison after the risks were identified found a large quantity of prohibited items. Officers also found mobile phones, a knife and other unauthorised items in prisoners’ cells, as well as cases where the permitted quantity of certain items had been exceeded.