Prisons, at 95%: more semi-liberties to make space and inmates sanctioned in the infirmary

BarcelonaAt the Figueres prison, there are inmates sleeping in the infirmary instead of the usual modules because there is no room for them there, and in the last week, a dozen inmates at Lledoners were serving isolation sanctions in the admissions module, where they normally only place those who have just arrived at the prison. These are two of the situations that different prison system workers have explained to ARA, all with the same reason: there are more and more prisoners, and the space in the prisons is the same. Five years ago, there were 1,800 fewer prisoners than now, which means that the prison population has grown by 23% and the prison system is approaching its limit. According to public data from the Department of Justice, right now the prisons are at 95%: on August 31, there were 9,597 prisoners and the total capacity of the system is 10,016.

The Government has been aware of this for some time, and a year ago, it announced that it would create two more modules within the perimeter of Mas d'Enric that would open in 2028. They have not yet started to be installed, but sources from the Department of Justice foresee that they could end up falling short and are already considering creating more modules like these to obtain between 600 and 700 more places.

The Generalitat says it wants to avoid reaching the point of saturation, but several sources consulted by the ARA ensure that the consequences of the increase in the prison population are already being felt in many modules.

The situation is widespread in the different penitentiary centers, and in some of the open centers –and at Wad-Ras, where there are also inmates in semi-liberty– there may even be more inmates than places because some forms of semi-liberty do not imply that the inmates sleep at the center, according to penitentiary sources.

However, the spokesperson for UGT Prisons, Montse Balaguer, distinguishes between the capacity of the penitentiary system based on how many beds and cells there are and the capacity taking into account the staff available to make it work. While the first figure exceeds 10,000, she places the second at 7,500: "It is the maximum number for which everything has been developed: the kitchens, the psychologists, the surveillance officers, the educators," she asserts.

More semi-liberties

A prison educator assesses that the fact that there are more inmates each time also causes more tensions among prisoners, and attributes this, in part, to the incidents and assaults this summer. The same employee, who asks to remain anonymous, points out that the fact that there are more prisoners in the courtyards and common areas makes it more difficult for educators to detect possible conflicts. In the same vein, a prison psychologist explains that in their center they have gone from treating between thirty and forty inmates per professional to having fifty each, and since there are two psychologists in each module, they have to take care of a hundred inmates each when a worker is missing.

These two professionals and other sources linked to the prison system who also ask to remain anonymous assure that the generalized instruction lately in prisons is to tend towards "openness" (openness), a term that the department championed during Gemma Ubasart's mandate to reduce recidivism by prioritizing semi-freedom. Third-degree regimes and other forms of semi-freedom were also promoted during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate lockdowns and social distancing.

"They ask us to make a more generous assessment, and if possible to classify them as third-degree from the start," summarizes one worker. "Some releases are happening a bit ahead of time," asserts another. The professionals consulted describe it as an "insistent recommendation" and warn that having to evaluate more and more inmates with these guidelines implies the risk that they cannot be "as thorough as before".

However, Pompeu Fabra University professor and doctor in criminology and law Albert González Jiménez recalls that if a premature or inadequate third-degree classification is detected, the Prosecutor's Office can intervene with an appeal. González also assesses that sometimes there is "excessive use of imprisonment" and defends promoting measures in an open environment. "Not as a solution to saturation, but having explored this open environment beforehand would have been a way to avoid saturation and other problems," he assesses. He also points to the need to study how to reduce preventive imprisonments.

Space for isolation

The solutions being taken also focus on relocating prisoners, and this in some cases means they sleep in modules they shouldn't be in, such as the infirmary, despite being healthy, or the admissions module, even after having been in prison for some time. What various sources point to as the most problematic fact is that this lack of space is also causing there to not be enough places for inmates who are sanctioned to fulfill the measures in the areas where they should: the special closed regime departments (DERT), which are reinforced with more staff. Furthermore, the architecture of these modules where inmates with the strictest regime live is different from that of ordinary modules, and there are more courtyards so that prisoners in isolation can go outside for a while every day, but without encountering other prisoners.

Isolation measures can be imposed, for example, due to a fight or if a prisoner is caught with a mobile phone or drugs. According to different prison workers, where the DERT has become too small, inmates in isolation are being moved to other areas. In the case of Lledoners, to the admissions module, explain sources close to the center. The spokesperson for the UGT, the majority union in the sector, Balaguer explains that there are constantly inmates who have to serve isolation and warns of the possibility that the lack of space might "accelerate" the end of the sanction or the transition to a more lax regime, a fact that she also denounces would entail a loss of authority for the officials.