A prisoner kills his cellmate at the Quatre Camins prison
The victim would have died from asphyxia after a beating in the sanctioned module, where the aggressor had been for a few hours
BarcelonaAn inmate at Quatre Camins killed his cellmate tonight in the disciplinary module. At around 11:30 p.m., an inmate in the neighboring cell used the intercom in the room to warn the officers that he heard the noise of a fight, as ARA has learned. The workers knocked on the cell door and the aggressor told them to enter. When they entered, they found him sitting with the other inmate on the floor covered in blood. The victim reportedly died of asphyxiation after being beaten.
The victim was in prison for a crime of robbery with violence and the aggressor was serving a sentence for a crime of fraud. This same Friday, he was transferred to the Brians 1 prison, according to penitentiary sources. As ARA has learned, the man had only been at Quatre Camins for three months – he was previously at Mas d'Enric – and for a few hours he had been in the disciplinary module after a fight in which he attacked another inmate without causing serious injuries. These previous incidents led the workers to keep him under "special monitoring," although he was not considered dangerous.
The Department of Justice explained that, following the crime, the prison center's professionals activated the corresponding action protocols and intervened immediately. Medical services attended to the inmates and notified emergency services and the judicial authority. During the day, the removal of the body was also carried out. The case will be in the hands of a court in Granollers, which will receive the details of the Mossos d'Esquadra's investigation and the results of the autopsy to clarify the circumstances of the death.
Justice stated in a statement that the two inmates "had no history of incompatibility," and penitentiary sources add that neither of them had the mental health protocol activated. Both shared a cell in module 5, the sanctions one. In this building are the inmates who are serving an isolation measure following an incident, which could be a fight or other situations such as being caught with a mobile phone. Penitentiary sources point out that, in some prisons, as happens at Quatre Camins, there is a sanctions module separate from the special closed regime department (DERT), which is reserved for inmates classified in the first grade. In the sanctions module, it is common for inmates to share a cell, unlike what happens in the DERT.
Now, the Mossos and the prison services have initiated the corresponding actions to clarify the circumstances of the events. The investigation and the autopsy will determine the origin and the circumstances of the incident.
Prisons at 95%
The death of the inmate occurred the same week that, as advanced by ARA, it became known that Catalan prisons are at 95% of their capacity. A situation that, according to various professionals, is causing an increase in tension in the centers, where the lack of free cells is causing, in some cases, inmates who have committed different crimes and are not of the same religion to be placed in the same cell. Catalan prison workers have also explained that there have been situations where inmates have had to serve sanctions in the infirmary due to lack of space. Prison sources ensure that Quatre Camins is experiencing "the overcrowding in prisons with more intensity than any other" and denounce that there are about forty cells with bedbugs.