{"id":20905,"date":"2025-11-05T11:19:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teise.org\/?p=20905"},"modified":"2025-11-05T11:20:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T11:20:41","slug":"20251105-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/20251105-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Is release a real possibility for those serving life imprisonment?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new article by researchers from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, titled \u201cHope of Release? Life Imprisonment in Lithuania,\u201d has been published in the Baltic Journal of Law & Politics. In this article Dr Catherine Appleton, Dr Simonas Nikartas, and Goda \u0160leinotait\u0117 examine the significant legislative amendments introduced in Lithuania in 2019, which allowed individuals serving life sentences to request a commutation to a fixed term of imprisonment ranging from five to 10 years, provided they had served a minimum of 20 years and met specific criteria assessed by the courts.<\/p>

Having analysed 45 court decisions on commutation requests and eight research interviews with individuals serving life sentences, the researchers aim in their article to answer the question of whether the new commutation procedure offers a realistic hope of release. Although the legislation established the possibility for life-sentenced prisoners to seek commutation and to preserve hope of eventual release, the study revealed that in Lithuania such prisoners face numerous obstacles \u2013 harsh conditions and limited opportunities for meaningful engagement \u2013 which hinder their rehabilitation and preparation for release, making the prospect of release effectively unattainable for some.<\/p>

The authors conclude that further reforms are necessary in order to genuinely achieve the goals of prisoner rehabilitation and the realization of human rights. This should include, for example, revising commutation criteria to prioritise rehabilitation progress over past offences, adapting the criteria for persons who have already served 20 years or more who were not required to meet the criteria at the beginning of their sentence, enhancing prison regimes and conditions to support meaningful rehabilitation from the outset of the sentence, and expanding opportunities for employment, education, and maintaining social ties and contact with the outside world.<\/p>

This article represents an initial effort to explore the impact of the significant changes to Lithuania\u2019s life sentence system.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The open-access article is available in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lietuvos socialini\u0173 moksl\u0173 centro Teis\u0117s instituto tyr\u0117j\u0173 parengtas straipsnis \u201eHope of Release? Life Imprisonment in Lithuania\u201c neseniai buvo publikuotas akademiniame tarptautiniame \u017eurnale \u201eBaltic Journal of Law & Politics\u201c. Straipsnio autoriai dr.\u00a0Catherine Appleton, dr.\u00a0Simonas Nikartas ir Goda \u0160leinotait\u0117 jame nagrin\u0117ja 2019\u00a0m. Lietuvoje priimtus reik\u0161mingus teis\u0117s akt\u0173 pakeitimus, kai laisv\u0117s at\u0117mimo iki gyvos galvos bausm\u0119 atliekantys asmenys \u012fgijo teis\u0119 kreiptis d\u0117l \u0161ios bausm\u0117s pakeitimo \u012f terminuoto laisv\u0117s at\u0117mimo bausm\u0119 nuo penkeri\u0173 iki de\u0161imties met\u0173, jei jie iki tol jau yra atlik\u0119 bent 20\u00a0met\u0173 bausm\u0117s ir atitinka kitus teismo nustatytus kriterijus. Mokslininkai, i\u0161analizav\u0119 45-is teism\u0173 sprendimus d\u0117l bausm\u0117s pakeitimo pra\u0161ym\u0173 ir 8\u00a0interviu su laisv\u0117s at\u0117mimo iki gyvos galvos bausm\u0119 atliekan\u010diais asmenimis, straipsnyje siekia atsakyti \u012f klausim\u0105, ar naujoji bausm\u0117s pakeitimo proced\u016bra suteikia reali\u0105 vilt\u012f gr\u012f\u017eti \u012f visuomen\u0119. Nors teis\u0117s aktais buvo \u012ftvirtinta galimyb\u0117 siekti bausm\u0117s pakeitimo ir i\u0161saugoti vilt\u012f ateityje b\u016bti paleistiems, tyrimas parod\u0117, kad Lietuvoje nuteistieji iki gyvos galvos susiduria su daugeliu kli\u016b\u010di\u0173 (pvz., itin grie\u017etomis kalinimo s\u0105lygomis, ribotomis prasmingos veiklos galimyb\u0117mis), trukdan\u010di\u0173 j\u0173 reabilitacijai ir pasirengimui i\u0161eiti \u012f laisv\u0119, tod\u0117l kai kuriems i\u0161 j\u0173 galimyb\u0117 b\u016bti paleistiems fakti\u0161kai tampa nepasiekiama. Straipsnio autoriai daro i\u0161vad\u0105, kad, norint i\u0161 ties\u0173 pasiekti nuteist\u0173j\u0173 reabilitacijos ir \u017emogaus teisi\u0173 \u012fgyvendinimo tiksl\u0173, b\u016btinos tolesn\u0117s reformos. Tai apimt\u0173, pavyzd\u017eiui, bausmi\u0173 pakeitimo kriterij\u0173 per\u017ei\u016br\u0105, labiau akcentuojant reabilitacijos pa\u017eang\u0105, o ne praeities nusikaltim\u0105, kriterij\u0173 pritaikym\u0105 asmenims, jau atlikusiems 20\u00a0met\u0173 bausm\u0119, geresni\u0173 kalinimo s\u0105lyg\u0173 sudarym\u0105 siekiant skatinti prasming\u0105 reabilitacij\u0105 nuo pat bausm\u0117s prad\u017eios, taip pat didesni\u0173 galimybi\u0173 dirbti, mokytis ir palaikyti socialinius ry\u0161ius suteikim\u0105. \u0160is straipsnis yra vienas pirm\u0173j\u0173 bandym\u0173 i\u0161samiau i\u0161nagrin\u0117ti reik\u0161ming\u0173 poky\u010di\u0173 Lietuvos laisv\u0117s at\u0117mimo iki gyvos galvos bausmi\u0173 sistemoje poveik\u012f. \u00a0 Su atviros prieigos straipsniu angl\u0173 kalba galima susipa\u017einti \u010dia.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-naujienos","category-268"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20905"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20910,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20905\/revisions\/20910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teise.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}