Annual Report 2010 by the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture
Search procedures are
222. Search procedures are largely similar to those used by other law
similar to those used by
enforcement agencies: an initial superficial search is conducted at the time of
other law enforcement
agencies
arrest, followed by another, more thorough search on arrival at the police
establishment, with a view to confiscating valuables and objects deemed potentially
hazardous. These objects are noted and stored until detainees leave the facilities.
Female detainees are searched by female officers. If there are no female officers on
duty or the local force in question has no female officers — as is the case in Haro
(La Rioja) — officers from other forces are asked to assist.
Records of strip searches
In most establishments it was also reported that a record was made of any strip
must be kept in detainee
searches conducted and the courts were informed accordingly. The local police
logs and the courts must be
informed
forces in Calahorra and Haro (La Rioja), Pamplona (Navarre) and San Sebastian
(Guipuzcoa) did not do this, so they were reminded that they must make a record
of searches of detainees, must inform the courts of such actions, and must note
down both the reason why the search was conducted and its outcome.
In some cases it was
223. The officers in charge of some of the establishments visited reported that
reported that detainees
detainees were informed of their right to request habeas corpus as a way of
were informed of the
possibility of requesting
habeas corpus.
All establishments had
detainee custody logs
ensuring judicial monitoring of their detention, but only the local police in
Cordoba did this in writing, which is considered good practice.
All the establishments visited had detainee custody logs, though the practices
observed in this regard varied widely.
Juveniles are not usually
224. Any juveniles detained are not usually held in cells. The only exception
held in cells
found to this practice was in Santander (Cantabria), where it was reported that
juveniles were always placed in cells.
V. Courthouse holding cells
These cells hold prison
225. These cells are intended to hold prison inmates and persons detained by
inmates and detainees
members of law enforcement agencies who are taken there from their respective
brought to appear before
the courts.
police stations, barracks or prisons to appear before the courts. Being located in
They may depend on the
courthouse buildings, they may depend on either the senior judge or the
senior judge or the
presiding judge of the panel or court, depending on whether the court in
presiding judge of the
question operates with a single judge or a panel of judges. Depending on
court. If the mechanisms
for justice administration
whether or not the mechanisms for running the administration of justice have
been devolved to the autonomous community in question, they may be
answerable to the Spanish Ministry of Justice or to the Regional Ministry of the
region in question. Moreover, in the holding cells in the courthouse at Plaza de
Castilla in Madrid the SGIP is in charge of custody, which means that prison
102
THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN
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