Long-term Deprivation of Liberty
In both cases, it was verified that the prison staff as well as management person
nel accompanied the inmates during the entire period of restraint.
The SGIP has been
In respect to the physical restraint carried out on an inmate at the Ocaña II pris
on (Toledo), to whom several restraining measures were applied as a result of an
aggression against another inmate, as mentioned in paragraph 104, said inmate’s
medical records indicated that during the examination performed by the doctor
the former did not show the aggressiveness and agitation which had led, accord
ing to the prison staff, to the intervention, in spite of which the doctor gave the
inmate injections of tranquilizers and neuroleptics. In this respect, the Ombuds
man Institution has drawn the SGIP’s attention to the discrepancy detected be
tween the physician’s report and the adoption of a measure, which is intended to
be exceptional, namely injecting medication without the inmate’s consent.
Ocaña II (Toledo)
104. The following general principle is established in Article 75.1 of Prison Reg
ulations: «Persons arrested, sentenced and inmates shall not be subject to any
regimental limitations other than those required to ensure their personal integ
rity or for the security and good order of the establishments, as well as those
deemed appropriate for their treatment or that stem from their classification
level». In addition, Article 75.2 of the Prison Regulations provides for the adop
tion of measures that entail regimental limitations, at the inmate’s request, in
forming the Parole Judge thereof, where necessary to safeguard the inmate’s life
or physical integrity. However, the criterion adopted by the SGIP in respect to the
application of Article 75 of Prison Regulations does not correspond to the Om
budsman Institution’s stance as expressed a few years ago and reiterated to the
SGIP on occasion of these inspection visits. In this Institution’s opinion, the lit
eral wording of said article must be respected, so that in all cases of regimental
limitations adopted by virtue of said rule the sole motive should be ensuring the
inmate’s physical integrity, and in the case of other objectives, the possibilities
offered by regulations in force should be applied, including the application of a
disciplinary regime, the use of restraining measures, a proposed classification
level demotion, a change of module or department, or any other measure pro
vided in penitentiary legislation. Otherwise, the protection mechanisms granted
to inmates by penitentiary legislation would be seriously undermined.
The sole motive of inmate
In any case, the SGIP must comply with its Instruction 3/2010, of 6th March, on
the protocol for action in security matters, whereby this article should only be
applied in the case of serious incidents which entail a risk for the prison’s security
and order, and the motives for said application must be clearly substantiated in
the resolution for its application, with the affected inmate having the possibility
to contest said application by means of an appeal.
This measure must only be
informed of the treatment
in a case detected at
regimental limitations must
be to ensure their physical
integrity
applied in case of serious
incidents, which affect the
prison’s security and order
The use of Article 75 of Prison Regulations was studied in depth at the prisons of
Araba/Alava and Ocaña II (Toledo), including inmates to whom regimental lim
itations were being applied on the basis of Article 75 and examination of the
THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN
91
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