The Greuges Sindicatura, the defender of the Catalan people, has recommended that people with intellectual disabilities who meet prison sentences do not remain internal in prisons, but seek more appropriate alternatives for their situation such as semilibertad or third grade.
According to the union data, in Catalan prisons there were 236 intellectual disabilities in 2024, 218 men and 18 women, 1.8% of all inmates, but with a higher percentage in women than in men. Only 136 have an official disability certificate.
In its 2024 annual report, the Catalan Torture Prevention Mechanism (MCPT), the body of the union in charge of ensuring human rights in prisons, concludes that prison is not an adequate place for these people, reports the Catalan Agència de Notícies (ACN).
The MCPT has requested that the convicted to fulfill the penalties alternatively. “The commitment to the open environment of people with intellectual disabilities must be a priority,” said the trustee, Esther Giménez-Salinas.
The lack of means to facilitate the mere understanding of a procedure or their rights leads people with intellectual disabilities detained to depend on empathy and good will of lawyers and judges.
The courts should refer these people to other resources more appropriate to their situation. However, not being done-often because in this phase the disability is not detected-the problem must be assumed from the penitentiary administration, the union indicates. “There are still deficiencies that make them not pay adequate attention to their needs,” the trustee has denounced.
To begin with, there are no specific units to meet the needs of this group, with the exception of the Specialized Care Department (DAE) of the Quatre Camins prison, in the Rock of Vallès (Barcelona), which works under the principles of therapeutic community. It is a coexistence unit with 35 places, apart from the ordinary modules of the prison. It was created in the 1990s to address the big problem of drug addiction of the inmate population.
The trustee has claimed to extend this unit to all centers, since some prisons have an department where prisoners with disabilities live with those who do not have this diagnosis but whose vulnerable situation makes it advisable that remain in units of this type.
In sum, the lack of specific units means that, in practice, the majority of people with disabilities live together with other vulnerable inmates, either because they suffer a mental pathology, a problem of alcohol or drug use or a disability. On some occasions, in addition, the stay in these alternative spaces is limited to two years.
Other penitentiary centers, such as Ponent, in Lleida, or gifts, in Barcelona, do not even plan to have this space to serve inmates in vulnerability.
The report shows that women with disabilities suffer a double discrimination, because either there is no specific space for them or the one there is clearly insufficient. There is a high percentage of people with DID who do not have the official disability certificate nor are they detected as vulnerable people. Therefore, they are located in ordinary modules and even can be found in insulation.
Giménez-Salinas, and the general attached, Jaume Saura, have delivered this Monday afternoon to the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, the 14th MCPT report. During 2024, 35 centers were visited with people deprived of liberty or institutionalized. Most visits (19) correspond to police police stations, both from Mossos d’Esquadra (7) and, above all, local police (12).
8 prisons, 6 youth justice centers, a socio -health center and a psychiatric hospital service were also visited. As every year, the report contains the chips of all visits, in which the main observations and conclusions of the MCPT work team for each visited center are collected, as well as the recommendations that are derived.
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