Lukiškės Prison

Lukiškės Prison (Lithuanian: Lukiškių tardymo izoliatorius kalėjimas, in Polish known as Więzienie na Łukiszkach or simply Łukiszki, in Belarusian - Лукішкі) is a prison in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania, near the Lukiškės Square. As of 2007, it housed approximately 1,000 prisoners and employed around 250 prison guards. Most prisoners are there under temporary arrest awaiting court decisions or transfers to other detention facilities, but there is also a permanent prison with about 180 inmates; about 80 of whom are serving for life.

After more than a century of continuous service, the prison suffers from overcrowding and is in need of investment in thorough improvements. The prison is located in a prestigious area, next to the Seimas Palace. Discussions about relocating it have continued for several years, but the process is slow. According to a 2014 plan, the prison will be relocated to Pravieniškės by 2018.

Until the late 19th century the main form of punishment in Russian-held part of partitioned Poland was the katorga, or forced resettlement to a remote area to heavy labour camps or prison farms. This was true to both criminal and political prisoners alike. The Russian Penal Code of 1845 further strengthened the notion. Furthermore, prior to the Emancipation reform of 1861 the serfs, who constituted most of the society in contemporary Russian-held Europe, could be incarcerated by their master rather than in state-run prisons. Because of that, for most of the 19th century the small criminal prison at Vilna's suburb of Łukiszki (modern Lukiškės), converted from an earlier Roman Catholic monastery in 1837, was enough to suit the needs of the Russian authorities. Most prisoners spent only a short period in the prison before being either released, sent to the gallows or sent to distant regions of Russia for penal servitude.

However, the 1874 revision of the criminal code of Russia introduced two additional penalties: a short-term prison confinement (up to 1.5 years) and long-term prison confinement (up to 6 years). Meanwhile, the old prison became dilapidated and severely overcrowded. It was clear that a new prison complex was needed. Because of that in 1900 G.A. Trambitski, the official architect of the Main Prison Authority, was tasked with designing a modern, high-security prison complex. Instead of moving it out of the city, the tsarist authorities decided to demolish the old prison and build the new one in its place. One of the reasons for it was the site's proximity to the newly built Provincial Court building.

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