Hundreds of prison staff are blocking access to several Catalan jails, where visits have been suspended or precarious releases have been suspended, according to authorities in the autonomous region, in northeastern Spain.
The protest will also force around 5,500 prisoners to be kept in cells throughout the day, as happened last Friday and, in the case of around 1,200 detainees, also on Saturday, authorities said.
The cook at a prison in Tarragona was murdered on Wednesday last week, triggering protests by prison officials, who complain about the lack of security conditions and call for the resignation of members of the regional government of Catalonia under the supervision of Justice and Prisons.
Last Friday there were already blockades of access to prisons in the region and on that day around 5,000 prisoners were kept inside their cells, due to a lack of personnel to guarantee security within the jail.
On Friday and Saturday, visits and precarious exits from prisons were also suspended and 1,200 inmates remained without leaving their cells for the second consecutive day.
On Sunday, there were no protests and the situation was normal, according to the regional government, which has already scheduled meetings with prison staff unions twice, without receiving a response.
The unions say they will only sit down to negotiate with the authorities when there are layoffs.
The protests returned today, after Sunday’s truce, and the police were called to the various gathering places to try to guarantee access to the buildings, which they did in only one of the cases.
On Friday, the head of the Catalan police (Mossos d’Esquadra) refused to send officers to the protests and called for mediation between prison officials and the autonomous government.
In today’s protests, access to the prisons was blocked with tire and wooden barricades, which were set on fire in some cases.
Protesters said they intended to keep access to buildings blocked throughout the day, but allowed the entry of workers who provide basic services, such as health and kitchen services.
In solidarity with prison officials in Catalonia, there were protests this morning in other parts of Spain, with access to prisons blocked in Málaga (Andalusia region) and Alicante (Valencian Community).
The Catalan government’s Justice Department warned on Saturday of “the risk and danger” of blocking access to prisons and keeping detainees confined in cells.
“There are people locked in cells” and this has an impact “on these people, but also on the workers”, creating a “dangerous situation” for everyone, said on Saturday the Catalan government’s Justice advisor (equivalent to a minister in a national executive) , Gemma Ubasart.
The counselor appealed to “everyone’s responsibility” and asked that “good coexistence be guaranteed” and a normal routine within prisons, insisting that, otherwise, “the risk is high”.
Gemma Ubasart, who was speaking at a press conference, also asked the unions to sit down and talk to the regional government, which she considered “essential” given a situation that has generated and is generating “a lot of tension”.
