Spain behind bars

Sergio A. Gómez Gallo

THE number of prisoners in Spain has dramatically increased during the last 10 years and currently stands at more than 77,000, thus placing this nation among European Union countries with the highest rate of inmates per total population.

According to the latest report from the Penitential Institutions Administrative Agencies Group (ACAIP), the Spanish prison offers union, the average rate of overcrowding in 2010 was 173%, which in practice means that prisons are filled to double their capacity. This is compounded by a lack of skilled personnel to run the penitentiaries, aggravated by public sector employments cuts introduced by the government in the face of the economic crisis.

Management problems have resulted in inadequate healthcare services and violations prisoners’ basic rights. This is the case of mentally ill inmates, close to one in four of the prison population, according to ACAIP. Alfredo Calcedo Barba, vice-president of the Spanish Legal Psychiatry Society, interviewed by El Mundo , stated that the situation of prisoners with mental disorders is deplorable.

The country only has two mental hospitals for prisoners (in Alicante and Seville), which follow "a 40-50 year-old model and are absolutely overflowing," Calcedo stated.

The Documentation against Torture Center (CDDT) noted that more than 40 persons died in prison in 2011. One of the more notorious cases was that of Moroccan prisoner Tohuami Hamdaoui, sentenced to a 14-year term for rape and who died after a five-month hunger strike to demand a review of his sentence.

It is alarming that close to 80% of deaths reported by CDDT in supposedly impregnable prisons were the result to overdoses. The Arborea website posted an article titled "The outrageous situation in Spanish prisons," is such that 60% of inmates are drug dependent and it is the guards themselves who introduce narcotics into them. It is a fact that it is much easier to obtain drugs in prison than outside."

It is much harder to confirm the daily humiliations suffered by inmates in the country’s 80-plus prisons. TOKATA, a cooperative prisoners’ bulletin, carried the story of Rafael Hidalgo, who stated in a Córdoba court that he was being beaten two or three times a day and woken up by prison officers every hour.

The bulletin also mentions the scandal which rocked the Madrid I (Meco) correctional facility, housing more than 650 women prisoners. The Ministry of Interior was force to dismiss the entire management executive, after it emerged that certain guards were abusing their authority and having sexual relations with inmates.

Moreover, TOKATA published the story of Carlos Emilio Prado Rodríguez, an inmate in the Madrid IV Correctional Center who, after undergoing an operation on his left knee, was obliged to walk on crutches and did not receive the prescribed rehabilitation treatment.

The critical state of the Spanish prison system is even more difficult for foreigners, who comprise more than 35% of the total penitential population. Official ACAIP data demonstrate that the "Spanish dream" of many Latin-American and African immigrants has ended in jail. Six out of every 10 persons imprisoned from 2000 to 2010 were immigrants.

This figure is compounded by thousands of peoples detained in Alien Detention Centers (CIE) which hold undocumented immigrants in legal limbo.

The death on January 6 of 21-year old Idrissa Diallo in a Barcelona CIE, led to a national scandal which reached high political circles. A report issued by the Izquierda Unida party, leaked to the press, stated that a number of CIEs were holding up to 280 persons in cells for six to eight inmates, in many cases with no toilets facilities, for up to two months.

Perhaps the worst part of this story is that prisons have become a lucrative business for some enterprises. The Spanish government has allotted close to 3 billion euros in taxpayers’ money to the prison system. César Manzano, from the Salhaketa, a prisoners’ support group, confirmed that most of this money has ended up in the construction of mega-penitentiaries; in other words, private corporations are profiting from their construction.

Moreover, Spain could soon be included on the list of countries with private prisons if an agreement with the Ferrovial enterprise is finalized. Critics of this policy believe that private interest in profiting from prison correctional facilities will jeopardize their security.

It is hard to believe that the invisible hand of the market, which has led the country into one of its worst crisis in history, will solve the problems concealed behind Spanish bars.