The judicial resolution that on August 1 authorized the holding of a coexistence meeting in prison (with physical contact and known as face to face) between a prisoner and his dog, supposedly about to be euthanized, has not yet been executed. The reason: until this Tuesday, the inmate had not complied with one of the conditions that the head of the Penitentiary Surveillance Court number 1 of the Basque Country, based in Bilbao, had imposed so that the pet could enter prison. Specifically, the presentation of a veterinary certificate on the terminal situation of the animal, according to penitentiary sources and confirmed to EL PAÍS by the Department of Justice of the Basque Government.
The entry of animals into Spanish prisons is an exceptional event and, almost always, occurs by court order, according to different penitentiary sources. Article 225.2 of the Penitentiary Regulations establishes that, “as a general rule, for hygienic reasons, the presence of animals will not be authorized in penitentiary establishments and, in no case, in the cells.” The animal welfare law, which will come into force on September 29, does not affect this prohibition, which will remain in place, prison sources clarify.
The request for the pet to enter prison was made by the inmate last spring, when he was held in the Martutene Penitentiary Center (Gipuzkoa). The prison management rejected it in the first instance, considering that prison regulations do not cover the celebration of face to face with pets, for which the inmate presented on June 23 before the Penitentiary Surveillance judge a “complaint against the intervention of communications”, in which he alleged that his pet was going to be sacrificed due to its poor state of health. On August 1, the magistrate, after requesting a report from the prison psychologist on the convenience of said meeting for the prisoner, agreed with him – who by then had already been transferred to the Zaballa prison (Vitoria) after having been punished for other acts in the Guipuzcoan prison – and authorized the holding of the meeting with the animal.
However, the judge imposed four conditions on the inmate so that the vis a vis took place. Among them was, precisely, that he provide a veterinary certificate regarding the inevitable sacrifice of the pet. In addition, the dog should be brought to the prison by a family member who had also been authorized to participate in the meeting and during “the journey from the entrance of the Penitentiary Center to the prison unit.” face to face [el animal] must be [conducido] muzzled and leashed.” Finally, the magistrate insisted that, if the pet soiled the meeting area, “the inmate will clean the rooms.”
Although prison legislation does not contemplate the entry of pets into prison, animals and, specifically, dogs do enter prison, although in very different circumstances than those proposed by the judge in his August resolution. In addition to the canine units that the Ministry of the Interior launched in 2019 to detect and prevent the entry of drugs into prisons, dogs have been used for years in the so-called Animal Assisted Therapy (TACA), a prison program aimed mainly at inmates with emotional deficiencies or lack of self-esteem. Pet care within prisons seeks for these inmates to improve their relationships with other people and achieve a certain emotional stability within a broader reintegration plan.
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
#delayed #visavis #prisoner #dog #euthanized