Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism
At the prisons of Alava and
Murcia II some modules
were closed due to lack
of personnel
The cells were individual or for double occupancy in all centers. In the case of the
prisons of Alava and Murcia II, several modules were closed due to lack of person
nel, and therefore, in spite of there being empty cells, the majority of them were for
double occupancy. The same use was noticed at the prison of Alcala de Guadaira
(Seville), due to an increase of 25% in the occupancy of the center as compared
with the previous visit. The three cases have been notified to the SGIP in order to
have this situation remedied. At the women’s prison of Barcelona, there was a situ
ation of overcrowding, since six female inmates occupied the majority of cells and
some of them had up to eight. One of the inmates from such center declared: «Liv
ing together is very hard. In my room there are seven of us, so we need to get on
well, because otherwise there would be daily conflicts». These situations represent
a breach of the legal mandate on cell principle, as described in paragraphs 318 of
the 2010 Annual Report and 119 of the 2011 Annual Report. Therefore, adequate
measures should be adopted in order to remedy this situation.
Cell with capacity for 7
inmates at the women’s
Photograph 15
prison of Barcelona
The occupancy at Ocaña II
(Toledo) has decreased
The video-surveillance and
recording systems are still
not present in all facilities
(except cells and
bathrooms)
There are no video
surveillance systems in the
cells where physical
restraint is applied
82
On the contrary, the occupancy decrease at the prison of Ocaña II (Toledo) as
compared to the one registered in previous years should be commended (599
inmates at the visit undertaken by the Ombudsman Institution in 2008, in com
parison to 419 inmates during this visit).
78. In general, the video-surveillance and recording systems at the prisons visited
do not comply with the criteria described in paragraphs 334 and 477 of the 2010
Annual Report and 120 of the 2011 Annual Report, and therefore the opinion of
this Institution in this respect had to be reiterated. As regards the prison of Alcala
de Guadaira (Seville), in respect of which this shortcoming was already pointed out
in the mentioned paragraph of the 2011 Annual Report, it was reported that a
study of the current system and its possible upgrading was already under way.
The majority of the visited centers do not have these systems installed in those
cells where physical restraint is applied, which in the opinion of the Ombudsman
Institution is not adequately in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 143
of the 2011 Annual Report.
THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN
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