Warning about the "restriction of rights" of prisoners since the crime in Mas d'Enric

BarcelonaAlmost a year after the crime in Mas d'Enric prison, the Ombudsman has reiterated its warning to the Department of Justice for the measures it took in response to the murder of a cook at the hands of a prisoner who also worked in the kitchen. The Ombudsman, Esther Giménez-Salinas, insists that the Generalitat must review "in depth" the circular that bans all inmates arrested for violent crimes from kitchens and other jobs considered at risk. Furthermore, she is demanding that all inmates who were dismissed under this rule be readmitted retroactively.

This is one of the main recommendations that the Ombudsman includes in the latest edition of the annual report of the Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, which Giménez-Salinas presented this Monday in Parliament. Regarding the circular that limits the places where prisoners can work depending on the crime committed, the report warns that it represents "a restriction of the rights of inmates."

"I once again call for security for inmates and prison officers, one thing is not contrary to the other," Giménez-Salinas argued during her appearance before the parliamentary commission of the Ombudsman's Office. In her report, the Ombudsman also insists that the way to guarantee security is not to restrict inmates' access to these jobs but to "apply control measures and perhaps expand those that already exist." She refers, specifically, to installing more cameras and metal arches, reinforcing searches and continuing with new measures that have already been applied in recent months, such as securing work tools that may be dangerous to work tables.

Working in prison, the report recalls, is a right of inmates and fundamental to promoting their reintegration. "If there is one aspect whose importance we can highlight in prisons, it is work," said the Ombudsman during her speech. Regarding the veto on working in certain positions, the report warns that the decision cannot be made "automatically" based on the type of crime the prisoner has committed.

Furthermore, in the case of those who are in provisional prison and have not yet had a trial, the Ombudsman sees a violation of the presumption of innocence. The wording of the rule that excludes prisoners from certain jobs says that those who are in prison "for violent crimes resulting in death or serious injury" must be excluded, a text that in Salinas' opinion is "too vague" because, for example, it does not clarify whether or not it includes reckless homicide, for example.