Parole practises in Lithuania: Factors predicting court decisions
| Author | Liubove Jarutiene |
| DOI | 10.1177/20662203211056472 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
Original Article
European Journal of Probation
2021, Vol. 13(3) 301–319
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/20662203211056472
journals.sagepub.com/home/ejp
Parole practises in Lithuania:
Factors predicting court
decisions
Liubove Jarutiene
Criminological Research Department, Law Institute of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania
Abstract
This article examines factors that predict parole decisions in Lithuanian courts. The study
state has a two-stage discretionary parole system where applicants are first evaluated
through a parole board hearing, and the board’s decision is then reviewed in court. The
study sample included 360 court verdicts from various court institutions. Intergroup
comparisons suggest that parole boards tend to grant parole more often than courts. The
results of regression analysis suggest that courts weigh heavily on the decision made by
the parole board as well as the number of misconduct reports, time left to serve and
previous parole or probation violations.
Keywords
Parole, conditional release, decision-making, Lithuania, regression analysis
Introduction
The legal context of parole applications
In Lithuania, parole is a form of conditional release from custody that may be applied in
the case of a determinate sentence after some proportion of the sentence has been served.
The study state currently has a two-stage parole application system where the applicant
may be granted parole on discretionary conditions. The option of automatic parole has
been established recently; however, discretionary parole remains the most prevalent
framework. The current parole application system was developed in 2012 after the
Corresponding author:
Liubove Jarutiene, Criminological Research Department, Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social
Sciences, Ankstoji Str. 1A, Vilnius LT-01109, Lithuania.
Email: liubove.jarutiene@teise.org
initiation of the Probation reform. The reform involved significant updates to the Code for
the Execution of Criminal Penalties (CECP) and the adoption of the Probation Act. The
main purpose of the reform was to address prison overcrowding problems and ensure
smoother social integration of probationers and parolees.
1
Until 2012, the main parole condition was a duty to serve a certain part of the sentence
based on the length of the original sentence (CECP, 2002). The decision-makers were
given no specific guidelines or criteria to rely on while dealing with parole cases. Hence,
courts exercised a great deal of discretion in terms of parole decisions.
After 1 July 2012, the legal terms of parole application were redefined to be more
specific. Following this, inmates continued to be required to serve a certain part of the
sentence depending on the original length.
2
Additional criteria included (1) the com-
pletion of measures listed in the correctional plan, (2) level of criminal risk
3
and (3) the
inmate’s institutional conduct (Law on changes of the CECP,2012). The correctional plan
had to be based on the results of the criminal risk assessment and address the specific
criminogenic needs of each inmate. This instrument was developed to ensure the rou-
tinisation of correctional measures and facilitate the monitoring of the rehabilitation
process. Thus, from then on, the parole decision has depended on the level of criminal
risk, institutional conduct and the inmate’s efforts to adhere to the correctional plan.
However, the list of criteria was not finite as ‘other significant circumstances’could
also be considered (Law on changes of the CECP, 2012). Although the new framework
was more specific, the legal terms of parole still lacked clarity. It was not clear what level
of criminal risk and which aspects of institutional conduct indicated eligibility for
conditional release.
Another significant change made in 2012 was the establishment of parole boards.
4
Before 2012, local courts dealt with all parole cases. Parole boards emerged as an ad-
ditional parole decision-making authority charged with considering social research re-
ports for each applicant and providing individualised recommendations on parole
conditions. Local courts were then given the power to make parole decisions based on
parole board recommendations. In addition, the 2012 revisions permit only board
members to meet the applicants in person, while written forms are reviewed for parole
cases in court.
5
These changes added complexity to the parole application system, as
inmates were now required to pass two parole stages instead of one.
In addition, intensive supervision (IS) using electronic monitoring
6
was introduced in
2012, which allows inmate who agree to its terms to apply for parole 6 months prior to the
term set in the CECP. Every inmate eligible for parole could apply for this option re-
gardless of the sentence length or crime committed (Law on changes of the CECP, 2012).
IS was a novel system in Lithuania and created a new category of parolees. The in-
troduction of IS required decision-makers to consider a new parole option and adjust thei r
decision-making strategies to a new system.
Further changes to the parole system occurred on 1 September 2015, resulting in the
liberalisation of parole terms. These revisions required inmates to satisfy three basic
requirements in order to obtain parole: (1) the obligation to comply with (rather than
complete) the measures included in the correctional plan, (2) being classified as low-risk
and (3) the progress of risk reduction, indicating that the inmate shall not reoffend. In
302 European Journal of Probation 13(3)
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