2016 REPORT ON NATIONAL PREVENTION OF TORTURE
including the Police Department, the Ministry of
Social Security and Labour and the Association
of Local Authorities, had agreed on the urgency
of the problem, but none of them had assumed
the responsibility to organise additional services
and their financing with the budget allocations
for the institutions. In the Ministry’s opinion,
as Lithuania had some successful state-funded
providers of the general and short-term social
care and temporary accommodation services, for
example, Sala, a branch of the Vilnius Emergency
Lodging House, the long-term experience of
which suggested that the Association of Local
Authorities could take an initiative to promote the
proper organisation and funding of temporary
accommodation services for unsober individuals.
garments and bedding at the custody facilities of
the Klaipėda County Police Headquarters has not
been implemented either. The Police Department
disagreed with the recommendation to supply
persons placed in temporary detention facilities
during night-time with soft items such as mattresses and blankets, and has failed to implement the
recommendation to take measures to prevent the
violations of human rights also at other police
institutions identified during the inspections. The
Ministry of Health disagreed with the proposal to
improve the health care regulations, expressing
the opinion that the existing legal framework was
sufficient (in particular the List of public health
measures implemented by the state-funded
closed health care institutions of the Ministries
of the Interior and Defence, Lithuanian Medical
Standard MN 129:2004 “Medical unit (office) of
the custody facilities at a territorial police institution” and the Regulations on the operation of
custody facilities at police stations).
IMPRISONMENT INSTITUTIONS
In 2016, the Seimas Ombudsmen assessed the
human rights situation at Alytus Correction House
(Report No. 2016/1-55 of 21 July 2016). The inspection was carried out in four thematic areas: (1)
detention conditions; (2) security; (3) the right of
access of information and of submitting appeals;
and (4) health care.
The following problems and most common
violations of human rights have been identified:
1. Concerning the detention conditions. Most of
the premises are not adapted to the movement
of persons with disabilities; there are no shelves
or rails installed at a lower height, or sufficient
space for the free movement of wheelchairs;
wheelchairs and other means compensating physical disabilities are in short supply; the number
of seats in the courtyard is inadequate, and in the
library the availability of audiobooks and other
alternative electronic measures for access to information and possibilities of distance learning are
insufficient; proper cleanliness and ventilation are
The recommendations of the Seimas Ombudsmen that have not been implemented or rejected
by the responsible authorities are analysed further and ways for solving the problems are sought
in order to improve the human rights situation at
the police stations.
The Seimas Ombudsman has also requested
the Ministry of Health to provide information
on the results of work to solve the question of
an inter-service working group for the delivery
of persons under the influence of alcohol to an
appropriate (police, personal health care, etc.)
institution. The Ministry of Health informed that
on 17 September 2014 a meeting of the Ministry
of Health had evaluated the existing situation in
organising the provision of personal health care,
social and other services to unsober persons. The
representatives of all the attending institutions,
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