Saturated prisons: Justice is working on a pool so they do not run out of psychologists

BarcelonaThe Department of Justice is working on a job pool to cover the necessary leave or replacements for prison educators and psychologists. This measure will serve to prevent positions for treatment staff—which also include social workers, pedagogues, and jurists—from remaining vacant when a worker is absent, and will make it easier to replace them immediately. Justice is working to define the criteria for creating this pool and will present it to worker representatives within a period of fifteen days, as reported by the UGT Prisons union, the majority in the sector, after meeting with Minister Ramon Espadaler, the Secretary of Penal Measures and Reinsertion, Elena Pérez, and the Director General of Prison Affairs, Domingo Estepa.

The creation of this replacement pool was part of the agreement on working conditions that the department and sector unions closed after the murder of Núria López, who worked in the kitchen of Mas d'Enric prison, more than two years ago. However, although department sources describe the meeting as very productive and constructive, this Monday's meeting did not lead to any new formal commitment.

UGT spokesperson, Montse Balaguer, explains that the treatment staff replacement pool is a "historical demand" and that it will mean streamlining the relief for these vacancies. Previously, she asserts, only long-term leave was covered, and the time between the publication of the vacancy and the selection process meant that months could pass until the replacement was incorporated. In contrast, with a replacement pool system, selection interviews are already done in advance and vacancies can be covered with greater agility.

More civil servants and more space

The UGT Prisons union requested this meeting with the Minister of Justice to address the increase in the prison population, and in addition to this substitution pool, it has requested that various measures be urgently applied in prisons, such as accelerating the construction of new modules at Mas d'Enric. Their requests also include an increase in staff and updating the internal staff substitution pool. They also ask to expand the number of places for the next call for civil service examinations, a point on which the union assures it has the commitment of Justice to address it with the Civil Service.