This paper explains the institution of prison leave in Spain. Firstly, I will briefly describe the regulations governing prison leave and provide data on its use in Spain. I will point out that although half the prison population benefits from a prison leave, a main problem is that it is granted at a very late stage of the sentence, and that immigrants have a very low probability of obtaing it. Secondly, I will explain the criteria used in order to determine if a leave is granted, the wide discretion that psychologists in particular enjoy, and why this procedure might be experienced by the prisoner as unfair. Thirdly, I will describe the mixed system that allows both Prison Boards and Judges to make decisions about leave and how this often produces confusing results for prisoners. For instance, a positive prison report being followed by a negative judicial response due to the wide discretion that judicial authorities also enjoy. Finally, I draw some tentative conclusions about how a lack of clear criteria and procedure in relation to prison leave might also affect legitimacy in prison.

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Reducing Discretion in the Administration of Prison Leave: In Search of Legitimacy

Open prisons are low-security penitentiary institutions in which life conditions are less strict than in closed prisons, and where prisoners have more contact with the outside world Despite sharing important features, some variations can be found in the model of open prisons in different countries This article describes the Catalan open prison model, characterized by the fact that prisoners serve the sentence in full semi-liberty; that is, by day they work and spend time with their families or doing other activities, but return to prison to sleep As a contribution to the comparative study of open prisons, I describe here how Catalan open prisons are run and discuss the concept of ‘openness’ with reference, above all, to the open prisons that exist in Scandinavian countries This work shows that the degree of openness of open prisons varies considerably between different countries – therefore approaching community penalties or closed prisons in a greater or lesser extent – and suggests that the role that open prisons are granted in each penal system is part of the explanation1
1)Marta Marti holds a PhD in Law (Criminology) Currently, she is working as an external consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross in El Salvador and she is member of the Research Group in Criminology and Criminal Justice System of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) This article is based on her PhD dissertation, ‘One foot in and one foot out: serving a prison sentence in an open prison’, which was accepted in November 2018 in Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) The full version of the dissertation (in Spanish) can be found on the following link: https://repositoriupfedu/handle/10230/36320 This article is part of the project ‘Ejecucion y supervision de la pena: calidad de la intervencion, legitimidad y reincidencia’ (DER2015-64403-P), funded by the Spanish Government
AbstractAbne faengsler har et lavere control-niveau end lukkede faengsler og indsatte i abne faengsler har mere kontakt til verden uden for faengslet Trods mange ligheder findes der ogsa en del forskelle imellem abne faengsler i forskellige lande I denneartikel praesenteres abne faengsler i Catalonien Disse er kendetegnet ved at de indsatte rent faktisk nyder delvis frihed Det indebaerer, at de i dagtimerne gar pa arbejde uden for faengslet eller tilbringer tid sammen med deres familie eller er beskaeftiget pa anden made i lokalomradet Om aftenen vender de tilbage til faengslet og tilbringer natten der I artiklen sammenlignes de catalanske abne faengsler med abne faengsler i Skandinavien Sammenligningen viser, at der er store forskelle i graden af abenhed i abne faengsler, nogle steder ligger de taettere pa samfunds-straffe og andre steder langt taettere pa lukkede faengsler Der argumenteres for, at en del af forklaringen her pa er, hvilken rolle i det samlede nationale straffesystem de abne faengsler har i forskellige lande

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Prisoners in the community: the open prison model in Catalonia

In this article, we analyze a miority within a minority, adding the variable of the matenity: offender juvenile pregnant or mothers. This group, due to its exceptionality, deserves to be studied, to clarify its contexts, meaning and to improve our work with them. For this, we will show a journey from de current regulations to the social work, ending whith some conclusions from anthropology to show the main aspects about the ma(pa)ternity, the pregnant, the labour and the upbringing inside of a prison for juvenile offenders. An institution where the sentences have to be implemented and this social process change into a fundamental cultural variable to these group as a decontextualized a new social role. With this environmental context we analyze how these cultural categories have been reinterpreted, re-signified or they have new approaches with the main aim to know another speeches and practices in the maternity sociocultural process.

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/7247552.pdf

La maternidad en un centro de internamiento de menores infractores. Una revisión sociocultural de este proceso descontextualizado

In response to the pandemic that started in early 2020, prison systems around the world have adopted various strategies to prevent the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). In Spain, the m...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15564886.2020.1819496

Telematic Control and Semi-Freedom as a Response to the Pandemic: The Spanish Penitentiary System Experience

The study of prison misconduct and the use of sanctions is relevant to improve the safety and quality of life of those imprisoned people. Comparative literature departs from three theoretical perspectives on this regard: those that explain misbehavior as a consequence of the experience of incarceration, those that do it based on the characteristics of the imprisoned individuals, and those centered on the relationship between those who are serving a sentence and professionals, and with the penitentiary institution. However, in the Spanish context there is a lack of studies on this subject. This study uses self-reported data of 494 inmates in the final phase of their sentence to analyze the variables related to the probability of receiving a sanction during incarceration in order to propose prevention measures and new hypotheses for future research.

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¿A quién sancionamos? Un estudio exploratorio en prisiones del contexto español

The Spanish Constitution establishes that prison sentences should be aimed at rehabilitation and resettlement. According to this principle, the Spanish prison rules provide a progressive system of enforcement of prison sentences that promotes supervised early release as a way to facilitate reintegration in the community. The process of reintegration should start in prison –where criminogenic needs should be tackled– and continue in the community, addressing financial, family and job settlement issues. This ideal system seems to work effectively with prisoners that are early released. These prisoners benefited from the professional supervision of the probation system and from the help of third sector organizations that work in partnership with the penitentiary system. However, there is an important shortcoming of the Spanish system, because a relevant part of prisoners are only released after having served the full sentence and therefore are excluded from this transitional return to the community.

Prisoner resettlement in Spain : good practices for early-released prisoners and prisoners lost in transition that fully serve their sentence

espanolEste trabajo explora la problematica de las personas que finalizan su condena de prision sin una transicion escalonada en la comunidad -regimen abierto o libertad condicional. Sus objetivos son conocer por que hay personas que no finalizan su condena de manera escalonada, que elementos del modelo pueden dificultarlo y cuales son las vias mas efectivas para mejorar las posibilidades de reinsercion de estas personas. Para ello se ha entrevistado a profesionales de distintos colectivos: tecnicos de rehabilitacion del sistema penitenciario, profesionales que disenan e implementan las politicas de tratamiento y reinsercion, entidades comunitarias que colaboran en este proceso y organos de control establecidos. Los resultados muestran los ambitos desde donde se puede influir en los factores de reinsercion de quienes terminan la condena en regimen ordinario -sistema, profesion, internos y entorno- y ayudan a reflexionar sobre como se pueden modificar o flexibilizar por los profesionales que intervienen. EnglishThis paper explores the issue of prisoners that served the full sentence, without benefited of a gradual transition to the community, through the mechanisms of open regime and parole. The paper aims to understand the reasons for not being early release and to detect the best practices to challenge this problem. The method of the research has consisted in interviewing professionals related with different areas of the prison life: rehabilitation officers, professionals that design and implement re-entry policies, members of community organizations that collaborate in the resettlement process and members of the law institutions that take control of the penitentiary administration. The results show levels of the prison life -system, profession, prisoner and community- that may explain the progression of inmates while serving the sentence and make a critical reflection about the perspectives of change considering the professional views.

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Progresar hacia el régimen abierto: la visión de los profesionales

Generally, the analysis of punishment and the effects of imprisonment has only focused on offenders, leaving families in the background without paying attention to the negative effects that prison entails for them. However, some national and international studies have highlighted how families are a key agent in reentry, becoming the main responsible for receiving and supporting people who is released from prison. Although in the Spanish context there are few studies that have focused on the relationship between family and prison, this work arise from the previous literature to propose that there are reasons to consider families as reentry agencies insofar as they are developing functions assigned to this type of institutions (housing, support and supervision). With this purpose, we offer reasons that can explain this situation, highlighting how the prison may be acting as a transmitting institution of traditional family values that characterize Spanish society. Finally, the implications and dangers of presenting families as the main agents of the reentry process are discussed, as well as the problems of transferring into families those functions that should be responsibility of the State.

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Aina Ibàñez i Roig

Papers

Prisoner resettlement in Spain : good practices for early-released prisoners and prisoners lost in transition that fully serve their sentence

Progresar hacia el régimen abierto: la visión de los profesionales

Cárcel y familiarismo: ¿Usamos a las familias como agencias de reinserción?