Elite prison guards have been watching prisoners for 10 days in civil hospitals – Portugal

Members of the Prison Services Intervention Group (GISP), an elite unit of the Prison Services, have been monitoring two prisoners from the high-security Monsanto prison, in Lisbon, in civil hospitals for 10 days. The National Prison Guard Union tells the CM that the Caxias prison hospital refuses to receive the two patients, a situation that the structure says is recurrent.

The Prison Services do not comment, saying only that the admission of patients to the prison hospital is due to medical criteria.

O CM found that the first patient was admitted 10 days ago. He needed psychiatric support, and according to the Prison Guard Union, he was refused admission to the Caxias prison hospital.

“He had to go to the psychiatry service at the Egas Moniz Hospital, where two GISP guards are permanently watching him,” he told the CM Frederico Morais, leader of the Prison Guard Union.

This Friday, another Monsanto prisoner swallowed batteries. According to Frederico Morais, he returned to being refused treatment at the Caxias Prison Hospital. He ended up having to be admitted to the Hospital de São Francisco Xavier, where two members of the GISP are also staying.

The Prison Guard Union tells the CM that “it is regrettable that once again we are faced with the prison hospital’s lack of solutions, as you doctors should be concerned about inmates taking up a space that should be for citizens who have no other solution”.