NEWS

On 10th October, on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, the Lithuanian Prison Service hosted a scientific-practical conference "Professional Challenges and Well-being of Resocialisation Workers". The conference started with a congratulations and award ceremony for the psychologists working in the Service, and was followed by presentations on resocialisation measures and the officers implementing them by two researchers from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Dr Simonas Nikartas and Dr Rūta Vaičiūnienė.

Dr S. Nikartas presentation "Needs and expectations of contact officers in the context of prison reforms" was based on the results of the project "Changes in prison officers’ professional roles within the shifting custodial sentencing policy and practice“ (PRISTA). The researcher presented data on the expectations and challenges of Lithuanian prisons‘ contact officers in their daily work with inmates. S. Nikartas emphasised that, in addition to addressing the problems of workload and low salaries, it is also important to pay attention to the emotional well-being of the officers, the quality of their relations in prisons and the prison emotional atmosphere.

Dr Rūta Vaičiūnienė presented insights from her research on the impact of an anger management programme. In her presentation "The practice of applying behavioural correction in the penitentiary system: the case of the Anger Management Programme", the researcher first of all reviewed the results of previous studies on behavioural correction programmes (2017-2018 - proposed model of application of social rehabilitation measures, 2020-2021 - analysed the work with domestic violence offenders). Presenting the analysis of the anger management programme, the researcher discussed both the experiences of the participants and the challenges faced by the programme facilitators. The researcher stressed that the results of the research on the impact of the programme indicate that it has been effective in its application. "However, in terms of continuity and expansion of the programme, it is important to establish clear strategic guidelines that assess the quantitative and qualitative indicators and needs of its application," noted Dr Vaičiūnienė.

Dr Agnė Limantė, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, together with Yuliia Moskvytyn, an intern, published a column on the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in wartime on the Ukrainian legal news website "Yur-Gazeta.com". Yuliia, a native of Lviv (Ukraine) and currently studying at Mykolas Romeris University, is doing her internship at the Institute under the UPinLT programme, which finances internships for foreign students in Lithuania.

In a Ukrainian-language commentary, the authors first of all emphasised that this technology has shown incredible results since the first months of the war. "It has influenced the course of military operations and changed their dynamics", the authors said. The data collected suggests that the use of AI-based facial recognition technology has contributed to some 120,000 criminal trials of Russians and their accomplices in Ukraine.

However, according to the authors, the use of this technology also poses a number of risks. The article discusses possible errors in identification, the uncontrolled expansion of the use of FRT, unauthorised use of the technology and aspects of its integration into weapon systems. It also raises the issue of the storage of the large amount of confidential data accumulated by the technology, and the potential for breaches of personal privacy, for example when collecting data from social networks. "During the war years," the authors write, "databases were significantly expanded with photographs of living and dead persons, which in itself raises many ethical debates". Finally, it considers how the infrastructure and skills developed through facial recognition technology will affect everyday life after the war - improved public safety or reduced freedom?

According to the authors of the commentary, while facial recognition technology is having a significant impact on military operations in Ukraine, its risks cannot be ignored. In order to mitigate the risks, the results provided by the technology should not be the only basis for accusing a person. Clear rules for the use of facial recognition technology should also be drawn up, data protection should be ensured, the level of training of operators should be raised and transparent control mechanisms should be developed. This, in the authors' view, would help to reduce potential threats while maintaining the advantages of this innovative technology.

The commentary of the representatives of the Law Institute "Facial recognition technology: risks of use in war" in Ukrainian can be found here.

This year's European Society of Criminology (ESC) conference "EUROCRIM 2024" took place in Bucharest, Romania. It is the furthest eastern city to host the once-a-year event that attracts criminologists from all over the world.

On 13 September, Dr Simonas Nikartas, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, gave his second presentation at the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest. This time he joined the European Society of Criminology's Working Group on Community Sanctions section on "Punishment and rehabilitation: balancing competing goals?".

In his presentation "More probation, more prisoners? Community sanctions and mass supervision in Lithuania", the researcher spoke to the audience about the ever-expanding probation supervision network in Lithuania. Although Lithuania is often known for its high number of prisoners and long prison sentences, he said, Lithuania also has one of the highest numbers of people on probation in Europe.

Dr. Nikartas discussed the reforms of recent decades to reduce the prison population and to strengthen the resocialisation of offenders. As a result, he said, the volume of probation work has increased significantly. However, these reforms create the conditions for the expansion of criminal control, and probation measures such as electronic monitoring can have a separating effect, the researcher emphasised in his paper.

The 24th annual conference of the European Society of Criminology (ESC), EUROCRIM 2024, took place in Bucharest, Romania on 11th -14th of September. It is one of the most important criminology events in Europe, attracting more than 1,500 researchers and experts from around the world. The academic environment of the University of Bucharest, where the conference took place, created a platform for lively discussions and new collaborations.

The conference covered a wide range of criminological subjects, presenting the latest research and national practices. Over the four days of the event, presentations were given on cyber and economic crime, the threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence, gender-based violence and prevention strategies, political radicalisation, the use and challenges of scientific methodologies. A separate session was devoted to a group of researchers from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Social Science Centre (LCSS LI), researching the work of prison officers and the change in their professional role in the context of the reforms of the penitentiary system.

The results of the qualitative research carried out during the project "Changes in prison officers’ professional roles within the shifting custodial sentencing policy and practice" (PRISTA) (2023-2025) funded by the Research Council of Lithuania were presented at the session. The results reveal the internal contradictions and conflicts experienced by Lithuanian prison officers in their efforts to combine the functions of ensuring order and resocialising prisoners. The study also focuses on the recent reform of the penal system and the heritage of Lithuanian prisons - the Soviet-era punishment and post-Soviet prison cultures, which were explored in a 2015 publication by foreign scholars L. Piacentini and G. Slade.

It was this legacy and the efforts to get rid of it that were presented by Dr. Rūta Vaičiūnienė, a researcher at the LCSS LI, in the first presentation of the session. Based on qualitative research data - interviews with prison staff - she discussed the changes taking place in Lithuanian prisons in order to modernise the penal system and its impact on the staff. The speaker highlighted the changing roles and responsibilities of staff in the day-to-day work and tried to address the questions of how power dynamics are changing and why the social climate is important in the management of an institution.

In his presentation, Dr. Simonas Nikartas compared the experiences of role perceptions and internal conflicts of prison officers (2024 qualitative research data) and probation officers (2018 qualitative research data) in the context of reforms. According to the researcher, balancing the contrasting roles of rehabilitation and control due to the ongoing reforms is a challenge for officials in both institutions, as they need to adapt to changing aims, ideologies and regulations in their day-to-day roles.

In the panel session, doctoral student Liubovė Jarutienė, based on the qualitative research carried out during the project, presented her insights on the subject of the relationship between prison staff and inmates. According to the researcher, positive relations between officials and inmates are considered by foreign researchers to be one of the most important elements of the quality of prison life. During the interviews, Lithuanian prison staff identified respectful and professional communication with prisoners as one of the ways of ensuring order, as it is one of the main approaches of dynamic security. However, the researcher emphasised that this kind of interaction is often challenging for officers due to the heavy workload and the paperwork that often occupies a large part of the working day.

The session was concluded with a presentation by Dr. Artūras Tereškinas on emotions in Lithuanian prisons. Based on twenty-five semi-structured interviews with officers of the resocialization units of Lithuanian prisons, the researcher revealed how emotions are managed in these total control institutions. In his presentation, he outlined the most important emotion management strategies used by prison staff, their ability to develop emotional intelligence and to recognise and understand their emotions. Recent changes in Lithuanian prison policy and their impact on the emotional health of officers in these institutions were also discussed during the presentation.

The international conference EUROCRIM 2024 offered an opportunity to network internationally, as well as to discuss the results of the project's qualitative research and initial insights with researchers from different countries. For more information on the project "Changes in prison officers’ professional roles within the shifting custodial sentencing policy and practice" (PRISTA) implemented by the research team, visit: https://teise.org/en/projektai/prista/.

The forty-first (XXXXI) International Symposium on Economic Crime, sponsored by a wide range of international organisations and UK government agencies, took place at Jesus College, University of Cambridge.

The symposium, which has attracted more than 1800 participants from over 100 different countries in recent years, this year brought together experts and academics to share their countries' unique cases in addressing one of the greatest threats to national and international economic stability and development. The main theme of this year's conference was asset control and strategies of addressing acquisitive criminal activity and suspicious assets.

One of the world's leading universities hosted a week of presentations and discussions, during which various academics, representatives of national institutions and members of non-governmental organisations shared their theoretical and practical visions for the future, political and legal strategies, national practices, and the perspectives for improving tools to prevent economic crime.

Surrounded by researchers, judges, prosecutors, officials, and representatives of private sector organisations from various countries, Skirmantas Bikelis, a Senior Research Fellow at the LCSS Law Institute, shared the Lithuanian case - the variety of tools and strategies to prevent money laundering and confiscate suspicious assets. The researcher and the LEKOSTRA project leader shared the results of the research and discussed the mixed civil approach to suspicious assets.

More about the project led by Skirmantas Bikelis.

The 19th Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) took place in Vilnius on 5-6 September 2024. The theme of this year's conference was "Technological Change and International Law".

Researchers from different countries, national and international institutions and non-governmental organisations discussed how technological progress affects international law. They also discussed extensively the issues of cybersecurity, data protection, artificial intelligence and the regulation of other emerging technologies in the context of global challenges.

The event was also attended by Dr Agnė Limantė, Senior Research Fellow at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. Her presentation "Facial Recognition Technology in Russia's War Against Ukraine: from Awareness Raising to Evidence before the Courts" brought together two significant subjects - technological advances and Russia's war in Ukraine.

According to A. Limantė, facial recognition technologies in Ukraine are used for counter-intelligence, identification of individuals (victims, detained soldiers and civilians) and counter-propaganda. "Although currently used only for information gathering and validation in the battlefield, in future wars it could become a weapon if integrated into the drones used in combat operations," the Institute's researcher said.

However, information gathered on the battlefield can be used for more than just military purposes. Data obtained through facial recognition technologies can become evidence in court proceedings. During the presentation, the researcher not only analysed the conditions created in Ukraine for using such data, but also discussed the emerging challenges of accuracy, privacy and ethics.

Yuliia Moskvytyn, an intern at the LCSS Law Institute (under the UPinLT internship programme) contributed to the preparation of the paper by collecting data.

The presentation is based on the publication "Faces of War: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Military Use of Facial Recognition Technology" by Dr. Agnė Limante, published in the book "The Cambridge Handbook of Facial Recognition in the Modern State" (eds. Rita Matulionytė and Monika Žalnieriūtė).

“Privacy, Data Protection and Data-driven Technologies” has just been published by the internationally renowned publishing house Routledge. The book aims to address the challenges posed by technology to existing data protection laws and to find balance between the development of technology and the protection of individuals’ privacy. The editors of the book, Prof. Martin Ebers and Prof. Karin Sein, colleagues at the University of Tartu, have brought together Europe’s leading scholars in law and technology for this purpose.

We are glad that one of them is Dr. Monika Žalnieriūtė, Senior Research Fellow at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences Institute of Law. In the 12th chapter of the book “Beyond Procedural Fetishism: The Inadequacy of GDPR in Regulating Facial Recognition Technologies and Public Space Surveillance“, she examines in detail the phenomenon of procedural fetishism – focusing on procedural safeguards. In the spring, the researcher presented this topic to participants at a conference of the Lithuanian Association of Criminologists.

In the chapter, M. Žalnieriūtė discusses the rapidly expanding use of the facial recognition technologies and the inadequate regulation of the European Union‘s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the author, the GDPR tends to focus on procedural safeguards in the hope that it will be sufficient to limit the powers of institutions and private businesses in relation to data protection. Finally, the researcher concludes that the need for stricter regulation of facial recognition technologies is inevitable, and that new regulations will have to be characterised by redistribution of power, redrawing boundaries and democratisation of technology companies.

The English chapter of Dr. Monika Žalnieriūtė is available here (chargeable access): https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003502791-17/beyond-procedural-fetishism-monika-zalnieriute

Zalnieriute, M. (2024). Beyond Procedural Fetishism: The Inadequacy of GDPR in Regulating Facial Recognition Technologies and Public Space Surveillance. In M. Ebers and K. Sein (Eds.), Privacy, Data Protection and Data-driven Technologies (1st ed., pp. 328–367). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003502791-17.

On 2 July, the Social Security and Health Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, together with international partners, invited representatives of various organisations and experts to a conference on “Drug Policy in the Republic of Moldova”. Representatives of six ministries, various state institutions (customs, border police, General Police, National Public Health Agency, penitentiary, probation, etc.), NGOs and drug-using communities’ representatives, national, regional and international experts participated in the event in Chisinau or remotely. It is a pleasure to see that among the latter were not only the former Mayor of Prague (Czech Republic), Dr Pavel Bem, who is currently advising the Prime Minister of his country on drug issues, or the head of the Estonian Health Development Institute, Aliona Kurbatova, but also Dr Mindaugas Lankauskas, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS LI).

At the conference, participants discussed Moldova’s drug policy and harm reduction, the impact of existing legislation on the fight against drugs, and the need for necessary reforms. Drug policies and services, according to the participants, need to be continuously improved in order to increasingly respect the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights. At the same time, this will also help the country to move forward in its integration into the European Union.

M. Lankauskas in his presentation “Threshold Quantities for Illicit Drugs: Understanding Lithuania’s Legal Framework for Drug Offenses” focused on discussing Lithuania’s legal framework for determining the quantity of illicit drugs.

“In Lithuania,” the scientist told the audience, “criminal liability for illegal disposal of narcotics and psychotropic substances does not depend on the type of substance, but on the quantity of the controlled substance. The use of drugs is an administrative offence, the possession of small quantities is a criminal offence, and the possession or distribution of larger quantities is a criminal offence with severe penalties.”

Finally, a researcher from the LCSS LI briefed the participants of the Lithuanian regulation on estimating the net quantity of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Moldova, which currently punishes the total amount of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances without measuring their content or concentration, is considering introducing a model similar to Lithuania's in the future.

The event was co-organised and supported by the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other Moldovan civil society organisations.

If one is interested to learn more about drug regulation policy issues, one can read Dr M. Lankauskas’ recent article “How Does Themis Weigh Drugs? Peculiarities of the Legal Regulation of the Determination of Quantities of Some Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances in Lithuania” (article in Lithuanian) published in the journal “Criminological Studies”.

For English-speaking readership, we suggest the latest publication by Mindaugas Lankauskas and his fellow colleague Skirmantas Bikelis “Penal Response to Less Serious Drug Distribution Offenses: The Case of Lithuania in the Regional Context”, which explores the criminological contexts of less serious drug distribution offences and the penal frameworks of the relevant countries in the Baltic region.