Shock plan to tackle the alarming numbers of female suicides in Catalan prisons

One of the main problems of the prisons in Catalonia is the high suicide rate among prisonersespecially among prey. According to the annual report on the state of prisons of the Council of Europe 2023which analyzes data from 2022, the suicide rate in Catalan prisons double the European average and also the Spanish average. Two years ago the rate in Catalonia was 16.8 suicides per 10,000 inmates, while in Europe it was 7.1 and in the rest of Spain, 7.3. This year, In just ten months, 11 people have committed suicide.

Given this situation, the Department of Justice has presented a shock plan to improve prevention, detection and action against suicides. Among the ten measures proposed by the Government is the training for all agents involved or the analysis of this phenomenon from a gender perspective, a “key and absolutely necessary” issue when addressing the problem of suicides in Catalan prisons, according to Inaki Riveraprofessor of criminal law at the University of Barcelona and director of the Penal System and Human Rights Observatory of the UB, formed by social organizations of human rights, entities of jurists, relatives of prisoners and academic institutions.

He percentage of suicides in society is higher in men than in women, but in prisons it is the other way around. Quantitatively they are few (there are between 6 and 7% of women imprisoned in Catalonia in relation to 93% of men), but The number of suicides is “very high” from a percentage point of view. The prison officers platform White Tide demands to focus on this problem. “Female suicide is impressively higher than male suicide. And that is a topic that no one addresses.“Remarks Rivera.

The masculinization of penitentiary centers has made invisible the reality of suicide among female prisoners, which attempt suicide more frequently. In a prison, being a woman already stigmatizes you, but being a female prisoner stigmatizes you even more. Rivera details that, unfortunately, the reality is that an imprisoned woman “always stays alone.” “On the other hand, the man who is imprisoned generally always has a woman on him: the mother, his partner, the sister…” he explains.

In the case of women, When they go to prison, the couple usually breaks updue to the situation of abandonment, shame, feeling of guilt, frustration or social stigmatization. “The figure of a man hardly exists among the relatives who are responsible for the care of an imprisoned woman. Therefore, the feeling of isolation is even greater“explains Rivera, who regrets that women “not only suffer the physical or architectural isolation of the cell, but also there is family isolation“This whole series of situations and casuistries could explain, rather than justify, the high rate of suicide among women,” he reflects.

End prison isolation

One of the measures that human rights social organizations have been demanding for years to address the problem of suicides in Catalan prisons is the abolition of the penitentiary isolation regime, main cause of the high suicide rate, according to Rivera. “These are two problems that go hand in hand. In 2017, a working group was created in the Parliament of Catalonia who prepared a report where the main conclusion was the absolute restriction of the application of prison isolation. The relationship between solitary confinement and suicide is direct,” he highlights.

He Government proposes isolation measures under psychiatric supervision, but Rivera recalls that this is already contemplated in the 1979 prison regulations and asks to go further. Although it is true that Catalonia does not have legislative powers to modify the penitentiary law or regulations, it does has the power to apply or not apply penitentiary isolation, “or at least do it in a very minimal and restrictive way and of very short duration“, details the expert.

“It is one thing to apply isolation for one or two days, in the context of an outbreak of violence, and quite another for the person to spend months and months locked up. We are talking about the right to life. It should be a priority of the Government and the Parliament’s Justice Commission,” says Rivera, who despite positively evaluating the Government’s shock plan, They have requested the appearance of the minister in Parliament.

Rivera explains that prison affects the physical and mental health of everyone who lives there, from the prisoners and their families to the officials who work there. And prison isolation aggravates everything: “If you add the personal biographies of the prisoners, deteriorated by the abuse of drugs and chemical containment drugs inside the prisons or the breakup with families and partners, a cocktail is created that from time to time, and unfortunately, leads to suicide”he laments.

He Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights of the UB is made up of the Observa Association for the monitoring of the penal system, Arrels Abogados, Alerta Solidària, Justícia i Pau, Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, yard.