Annual Report 2016 - Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism against Torture Educational Setback 129. During our visit to the facility in La Jara (Seville), we were able to check when, where and how an “educational setback” [«retroceso educativo»] takes place. This situation is not foreseen or regulated in Organic Act 5/2000, of 12 January, on the criminal liability of minors, or its Regulations, approved by Royal Decree 1774/2004, of 30 July. Nevertheless, it is being used at all young offender institutions and is derived from Article 6 d) of said Regulations. The principles underlying the execution of these measures includes “The application of fundamentally educational programmes to encourage a sense of responsibility and respect for other people’s rights and freedoms”. The Regional Government has addressed this “educational setback” in Resolution 1-2007-SMI, of 4 December 2007, issued by the Directorate-General of Juvenile Reform, and in Recommendations dated 5 February 2016, issued by the Directorate-General of Juvenile Justice and Cooperation. According to the first, a setback to the observation phase will apply to very troublesome minors who repeatedly breach institution regulations; once the Socio-Educational Committee has appraised the situation, a decision to go back to this phase will be aimed at totally or partly reviewing each individual enforcement of the measure. The Recommendations indicate that a setback in intervention to educational phases does not constitute a sanction, but an educational measure for minors that need greater control; nor does it entail any isolation or group separation, but a reassignment within internally separated groups. These documents are silent on the maximum stay that a minor may spend in an observation home as a result of a setback; however, it is provided that new inmates will remain in the home for a maximum of twenty days. Under disciplinary regulations, a group separation sanction has a maximum length of seven days, with two guaranteed hours outdoors, both if fulfilled in the room itself or in another similar room (with a desk and chair); this measure is decided following an adversarial procedure with the possibility of making allegations, submitting evidence and challenging the decision in a judicial appeal, all of which is not applicable to a “setback” decision. The absence of a provision on the maximum length of a setback measure means that, according to the minors interviewed and as corroborated by the management team, an educational setback may last for a month and a half, two months or more in an observation 88