309. Long-term deprivation of liberty is understood to be that extending beyond three months; in fact, in the majority of cases, the most common timeframe for this deprivation of liberty can be measured in years. Within this chapter, consideration should be given to an extremely wide range of legal circumstances. Firstly, reference can be made to custodial sentences — prison, permanent localisation and personal liability for the non-payment of a fine — (arts. 35 to 37 of the Spanish Criminal Code), the security measures provided for in criminal legislation — detention at psychiatric or drug rehabilitation facilities or at special education centres — (arts. 96.2 and 101 to 104 of the Criminal Code). In parallel, amongst the main sentences stipulated in article 24 of Spain’s Military Criminal Code, of interest for the purposes of this report are those involving imprisonment and detention. In addition, article 7 of the LORPM provides for a wide array of detention measures under different regimes (closed, semi-open and open) that include the so-called periods of therapeutic detention (internamientos terapéuticos), as well as weekend detention. Detention extending more In addition to the deprivation of liberty as a result of a criminal sentence, it should also be noted that a long-term deprivation of liberty may be the result of the adoption by the courts of a precautionary individual measure within the framework of legal proceedings. Such is the case of the preventive detention governed by articles 502 to 519 of the LECrim; of the different kinds of preventive detention provided for in articles 215 to 229 of Public General Act 2/1989, of 13 April, on military proceedings; and of detention as a precautionary measure laid down in article 28 of the LORPM. As a precautionary From another perspective, inclusion should also be made within this ambit of the instances of non-voluntary detention due to psychiatric disorders as provided for in article 763 of the Civil Procedures Act. This matter is also regulated by articles 212.4 to 212.6 of the Catalan Civil Code, according to Catalonia’s Act 25/2010, of 29 July, which also refers to those disorders that may affect an individual’s cognitive abilities; as well as by article 33 of Aragon’s Act 13/2006, of 27 December, on personal rights (at the time of writing, enactment has just been made of Aragon’s Legislative Decree 1/2011, of 22 March, approving the region’s legal code (Código de Derecho Foral de Aragon) by virtue of which the aforementioned provision has now become an article in said code). In its judgement 132/2010, Spain’s Constitutional Court has ruled that two paragraphs of section one of the aforesaid article 763 of the Civil Proceedings Act are unconstitutional, considering that the regulation of a measure on the deprivation of liberty such as that examined needs to be approved by a public general act. Nevertheless, in this case the Constitutional Court clarifies that “this declaration of unconstitutionality does not imply a statement of nullity, as this latter circumstance would create an unwanted vacuum in the legal system, especially when its material content has not been questioned”. Non-voluntary detentions than three months. In most cases it can be measured in years. It involves a wide range of legal circumstances. As a result of a criminal sentence individual measure within the framework of criminal proceedings. For example, being remanded in custody for reasons of psychiatric disorder. The Constitutional Court considers that the regulation of a detention measure within this ambit needs to be approved by a public general act Visits have been made in 2010 to civil prisons, Spain’s only military prison and centres for young offenders. THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN 133