13 Janurary 2015

After visit to Marijampolė Correction House, the Seimas Ombudsman Augustinas Normantas stated that temporary detention cells were dilapidated and without windows. Moreover, he voiced that complaints of inmates and searches were not registered and recorded properly.

“In some temporary detention cells windows, sinks and taps are missing, cells are dirty with foul-smelling sanitary installations," – reacting to these complaints of inmates, the advisers of the Seimas Ombudsman A. Normantas visited Marijampolė Correction House, without any forewarn.

On 8 January 2015 the advisers of the Seimas Ombudsman discovered that the complaints of inmates are palpable and factual.

The head of Marijampolė Correction House explained that missing windows were always being removed in spring and fixed in autumn. However, windows, which were allegedly broken by inmates, are not installed even in freezing conditions.

The advisers of the Seimas Ombudsman did not find any evidence in proof of words of the head of Marijampolė Correction House. Any documents or other indications did not show an existence of depredations of property caused by inmates.   

“There should be an appropriate environment for an inmate to change his / her behaviour in prison. Custody conditions, an occupation as well as the attitude of administration towards inmates have a great impact on behaviour of a prisoner," – noted the Seimas Ombudsman A. Normantas.

In Marijampolė Correction House, the advisers of the Seimas Ombudsman also visited a health care division, spoke with inmates as wells as their relatives. One more problem observed by them that the documentation of correction house is being managed improperly. Requests and complaints of inmates have not been documented and studied accurately.  Moreover, some of them have been ignored at all.

At the same time, the Seimas Ombudsman learned that a recommendation, which had been produced in previous year to record a bigger number of searches carried out in correction house, was not being followed. There were more than 2529 searches undertaken in 2014, only 21 were recorded. Moreover, information provided in these recordings was insufficient and inaccurate.