The eight deaths recorded in Spanish prisons during the four days of the last bridge of the Constitution have led to Correctional Institutions to issue an order internal to the centers use extreme measures of surveillance on the prisoners that show risk of self-harm as to prevent the trafficking of drugs within prisons. In the document, Prison claims to be “aware” of the mortality associated with the consumption of drugs and of the “disturbing” rise in suicidal tendencies.
MORE INFORMATION
Four hours of normalcy between bars The dogs that save the prisoners
so far this year, have been killed 132 prisoners in the prisons under the Ministry of the Interior —Catalonia is the only autonomous community with competences transferred— and 50 other prisoners died while they were admitted to hospitals to treat their ailments. Of the total number, 77 died of natural death, 53 of the so-called overdose in the consumption of the drug and 41 suicides. In 2018, the total number of deaths had soared up to 210, according to official data.
This last figure had led to Prisons to develop in the last months of a campaign that launched last December 18 to prevent the entry of drugs in prisons after finding that one of every five inmates died due to overdose just to communicate with their family or return of a permission, where he had gotten the narcotic substance that had caused the death.
in Addition, the numbers of seizures within prisons have increased despite the fact that the number of prisoners has decreased significantly in recent years: 4,500 interventions of the drug in 2012, it has evolved to over 5,100 in 2018 despite the fact that there were 10,000 inmates less. Prisons decided therefore to deploy last June, canine units in the interior and the entrances of five prisons.
however, the eight deaths of the four days of December —Prisons ensures that it is awaiting the results of autopsies to determine their causes— have led to Correctional Institutions to strengthen urgently the measures of control already in place to prevent the entry of drugs with a order internal, which also includes a reinforcement of the surveillance on those inmates that display suicidal tendencies.
In the document, dated the 16 of December and to which has had access to THE COUNTRY, Prisons asked to have in mind that the Christmas “are especially difficult for those persons interned” and, in particular, “to those inmates who present a risk behaviour”. Therefore, it considered “imperative to intensify” four actions that must be performed “in the most rigorous and effective as possible.”
In particular, calls for the making of searches comprehensive, to include the nude, on those prisoners who “had planned to enjoy communication vis-a-vis [to physical contact] over which there is a history or suspicion of drug trafficking”. Also demand that they take measures of control “that the circumstances warrant” on those visitors who communicate with them. As a second step, it calls for strengthening the control over the prisoners “who return permission and suspicion that can take your enjoyment to bring in drugs and other prohibited substances in the establishment.”
Also to prevent the consumption of drugs, Prisons poses arrange delivery of the medicines prescribed to prisoners “in such a way that the amount of drug to be delivered for treatment is not directly observed is as small as possible”. The civil servants ‘ trade unions have long claimed that the lack of health personnel the purposes of weeks ago that is delivered to the inmates medications for several days and that they traffic with them. From Prisons emphasize that the dose delivered can never be life-threatening, even if they are ingested at once, and add that in some prisons, such as Asturias, are random checks to verify that the interns have in every moment the pills correct and have not been made with the other or sold theirs.
The latest measure aims to reduce suicides. To do this, ordered to review the situation of each and every one of the internal behaviors and risk factors for suicide”, since the existence of attempts prior to the lack of family support and limitations in the regime of ordinary life within the prison for disciplinary sanctions. Penitentiary institutions will activate the Protocol for the Prevention of Suicide (PPS) in all cases in which notice risk of self-harm.
“I killed the drug that I went through!”
The campaign to prevent the entry of drugs in prisons seeks to raise awareness among visitors of the risk for their relatives in prison involve drugs, in addition to the criminal consequences they themselves will have if they are discovered trying to enter it. The posters reflected the theme “if you spend a drug in prison, your next visit could be in the cemetery” and a QR code that when scanned reveals the phrase: “I killed the drug that I spent!”.
