Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism Regimental limitations that are applied must be specified in the notification to the interested party and in the communication to the Parole Judge Approval by medical services must be included The increase in the number of inmates who require regimental limitations is an indication of the anomalous operation of the system of separation Prolonged duration of separation may entail that other measures are not taken to solve the problem The facilities where these kinds of measures are applied must be appropriate 94 109. The specific regimental limitations applied by virtue of Article 75 of Prison Regulations must be indicated in the notification to the interested party and in the communication to the Parole Judge. Nonetheless, deficiencies in this respect were detected at both the Ocaña II (Toledo) and Araba/Alava prisons. Said limi­ tations were not specified in the communication to the Parole Judge or in the notifications to the interested parties. Furthermore, at the Araba/ Alava prison it was noted that both communications only referred to the time spent in the court­ yard or to the restriction applied to oral communications, but that other regi­ mental limitations were not specified, not even cases in which inmates were transferred to the secure detention department, not being allowed to have the same belongings as in a normal cell –not even a book or other pastimes– or carry out activities, and having their right of privacy limited by the permanent obser­ vation of an inmate assistant guard. 110. The forms regarding the application of Article 75 of Prison Regulations that were examined in the course of the inspection visit to the Araba/Alava pris­ on did not include approval by medical services. The prison staff declared that the original document was probably in the infirmary. In consequence, the Office of the SGIP has been told that express instructions should be given to have said document be noted on inmates’ files. 111. Even though the measure provided in Article 75.2 of Prison Regulations is geared at protecting inmates, it is nonetheless meant to be an exception and en­ tails regimental limitations. For this reason, the increase of the number of inmates in a prison requiring the protection provided in said article can be consid­ ered as an indication of the anomalous functioning of the internal separation system. Such an anomalous operation was observed at the Ocaña II prison (To­ ledo) where in 2012 the said article was applied on 31 occasions, perhaps due to limited means for internal separation (only three modules, one of which is a re­ spect module), involving 7.43% of all inmates at the prison. Furthermore, at the Ocaña II prison (Toledo), some cases of prolonged duration (up to 4 months) in the application of Article 75.2 of Prison Regulations could indicate that other measures were not taken to solve the problem, such as, for example, a transfer to another prison. In consequence, whenever possible, other measures should be resorted to in order to reduce the number of occasions in which it is necessary to adopt the measure provided in Article 75.2 of Prison Regulations. 112. The facilities used to implement a sanction of solitary confinement, precau­ tionary measures, provisional solitary confinement or regimental limitations and personal protection measures pursuant to Article 75 of Prison Regulations must be appropriate and have characteristics similar to those of ordinary cells, espe­ cially in cases in which the stay of inmates is prolonged. THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN