The Spanish penitentiary system falls under two administrations:
I/ the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions (SGIP) for all of Spain’s autonomous communities except Catalonia. It is under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior;
II/ the General Directorate of Penitentiary Services (DGSP) for Catalonia. It is placed under the supervision of the Department of Justice.
A joint commission allows the coordination of the two administrations. The conditions of detention vary depending on the administration it is subjected to, the facility’s infrastructure and the regime of detention. The different regimes of detention are based on a “grade system” (grado): first grade (closed high security regime), second grade (ordinary closed regime) and third grade (semi-liberty regime).
The Ministry in charge of healthcare in prison is the Ministry of Health in Catalonia and Basque Country, and the Ministry of Interior for all the other Spanish communities. Access to healthcare is free and every prison facility has a healthcare unit. The medical team consists of at least a doctor and two nurses. A psychiatrist, a dentist and a pharmacist visit the facilities on a regular basis, but the presence of other medical specialists is rare. According to the Spanish NPM, the number of medical staff is insufficient.

Since March 2020, the Spanish government has been reinforcing preventive measures to avoid the spread of the virus in prison. The Spanish prison administration already had in stock around 100,000 surgical masks, dating from previous epidemics. It received 40,000 additional masks from the Ministry of Health. Spanish prison authorities isolated infected prisoners in order to avoid the spread of the virus. In Alicante, in July, 20 prisoners were isolated after one of them showed COVID-19 symptoms.
In April 2020, Catalonia’s Department of Justice announced the construction of a field hospital inside the Quatre Camins prison to treat sick prisoners. The decision was made following the confirmation of 22 new cases in this facility. As of 13 April, there were 58 infected prisoners in Catalonian prisons. As for prison staff, there were 46 infected members of staff but some of them affirmed that the number was much higher since there were not enough testing done. In June 2020, Catalonia’s prison administration decided to remove alcohol gel dispensers installed within all its facilities. Authorities alleged that some of the prisoners had used the gel to make alcoholic drinks.

The quarantine protocol may change from a facility to another: it could be seven days in some places, 10 or 14 in others. Prisoners who have been in contact with an infected person are isolated in their cells for five to seven days.

The OSPDH denounced to the Catalan Ombudsman (Sindic de Greuges) the situation that several families of prisoners held in Quatre Camins prison (Catalonia) shared with them in April 2020. A wing that was under renovation (MR-1) was set up as an isolation area. Isolated prisoners could not recharge their phone credits or buy food at the commissary. There were problems with showers, toilets, lights. Furniture such as mattresses and chairs were insufficient. According to the complaints, the wing was not organised as a place to live. Prisoners held at the MR-1 wing could not take their belongings with them from their cell to the isolated area. As a result, they were not able to change their clothes. The family members also indicated that they were practically not allowed to go out in the yard, sometimes only for an hour a day. According to the OSPDH, the prison administration adapted and rearranged the area after the complaints.

In March 2020, Estremera prison (Madrid) announced the first death of a prisoner and the infection of 38 prison officers. Two other prisoners were also infected and hospitalised. A total of 125 prisoners and 225 staff members were under medical observation or in quarantine.
In April 2020, authorities reported that 13 prisoners and 134 prison staff members tested positive for COVID-19. The most affected facilities were Picassent, Brieva, Soria and Segovia. By the end of the month, the Ministry of Justice reported that “COVID-19 contaminated the prison population four times less than non-incarcerated people”.
By 22 July 2020, the number of infected prisoners rose to 85. A total of 278 prison staff members also contracted COVID-19. The deputy director of the prison health service was pleased with the rapid implementation of preventive measures since the beginning of the pandemic. According to the authorities, these measures helped limit the spread of the virus, ensuring that the number of infections and deaths in prison was much lower than the national average outside prisons.

Spain is one of the 20 European countries to have used early releases as a measure to help limit the spread of coronavirus in prison. Between March and June 2020, 4,356 prisoners were released.

All activities and work involving the participation of external actors were suspended as of March 2020. By the end of May, 11 facilities had resumed the work activities that were compatible with the enforcement of sanitary measures. The situation in prison workshops varied from the Catalan to the other Spanish facilities. In Catalonia, many workshops were kept opened despite the lack of sufficient PPE. In other regions of Spain, only a few of them were functioning during the first wave. The OSPDH criticised the lack of alternatives to compensate for the suspension of activities, which are key to prisoners’ rehabilitation programmes.

During the first wave of the pandemic, all visits were suspended between 15 March and 14 May 2020, after the state of emergency was declared. Compensatory measures were put in place, such as an increase in authorised calls (from 10 to 15 per week). Free of charge calls were also offered for those experiencing financial difficulties. In March 2020, the prison administration declared that 200 mobile phones would be distributed to the prisons to facilitate videocalls for prisoners to contact their loved ones. Some facilities, such as Teixeiro, Bonxe and Monterroso prisons, for instance organised 10 minutes videocalls, under specific circumstances.

Most of prisoners under third grade regime (open regime) were permitted to go home during the state of emergency.

In Catalonia, visits without means of separation were suspended again in July 2020. Visits using a plexiglass screen were still allowed. In some prisons, such as Ponent prison in Lleida, all visits were suspended. Packages sent to prisoners were held in quarantine for 72 hours before being delivered. A videocall service was put in place to compensate the lack of communication between prisoners and their relatives. In October 2020, during the second wave, sanitary authorities’ guidelines were adapted depending on the local situation. Restrictions varied between prisons. For instance, prisoners are still allowed to receive visits as long as their wing is not subjected to lockdown restrictions. Videocalls are still available. The OSPDH has observed that, in practice, prisoners subjected to the first grade regime have less access to videocalls them the ones subjected to the second grade.

In March 2020, various prison facilities reported intensifying tensions after many prisoners started showing withdrawal symptoms. The restrictive measures had made access to drugs more difficult for prisoners. Several riots broke out prisoners in the Valence Community to protest against the suspension of visits. In May 2020, a riot was also reported in Córdoba prison, where prisoners flooded their cells with soapy water and barricaded doors with mattresses. Some prisoners targeted the prison officers throwing a bucket of water mixed with bleach at them. Others threatened the staff with glass shards. Authorities indicated that between 14 March and 1st May 2020, 14 riots had taken place in prison facilities throughout the country. The protests were mainly a reaction to the deaths of fellow prisoners, the lack of PPE and the lack of information on the health crisis.

Civil society organisations¶

At the beginning of the first wave, the Human Rights Association of Andalucía (ADPHA) expressed its concerns to the Ministry of the Interior and the prison administration. The association called upon the authorities to “adopt urgent measures to prevent, on the one hand, the spread of coronavirus within prisons and, on the other, to guarantee the fundamental rights of those deprived of their liberty”. The ADPHA also encourage the authorities to consider alternative measures to incarceration for those who are ill and for elderly people, as provided by the Spanish criminal justice system. The association urged for an increase of the medical staff in the facilities and recommended that the isolation measures should be organised in medical facilities not in cells. The association finally requested the authorities to provide for videocalls in all facilities to maintain contacts between prisoners and their loved ones.
In April 2020, several lawyers called upon the authorities of Palma de Mallorca prison to provide specific treatments for the most vulnerable prisoners, to release certain prisoners earlier, to stop imprisoning migrants for illegal stay and to increase the number of COVID-19 tests.

Prison staff unions¶

Prison staff unions have also expressed concerns regarding the way that the authorities have been dealing with the pandemic. In July 2020, the prison staff union at the Alicante prison feared that the lifting of preventive measures could provoke a rapid spread of the virus in prisons and endanger prison staff as well as prisoners. The union criticised the decision to transfer female prisoners and their children to the “Mothers’ Unit”, which is located near an area where people showing COVID-19 symptoms were isolated. It called upon the authorities to implement measures to protect prisoners, minors and prison staff.
Later, the ACAIP prison staff union, one of the most important in the country, criticised the lack of initiative of the prison administration when it came to preventive measures, and denounced the lack of PPE for health workers and prisoners. The ACAIP mentioned that security measures were eased too quickly and feared that the virus would be re-entering prisons.
In August 2020, the CSIP union of Cordoba urged the administration of Alcolea prison to summon the Security and Health Committee in order to plan efficient strategies to face the crisis. Since the infection increased at the end of July, the union feared a generalised spread of the virus amongst prisoners and staff. It also asked for the suspension of all family and conjugal visits. For the union, only visits with a mean of separation (locutorio) should be authorised. The CSIP also demanded the provision of more protection material (masks, gloves, soap, hydro-alcoholic gel) and more tests for the prison staff.