They report that 40% of toilets are missing in Madrid prisons

The union CSIF Prisiones Madrid denounces that there is a lack of an average of 40% of health personnel in the centers in the region, which are seven. And it places special emphasis on the problem of mentally ill people in these prisons, which aggravates the situation.

According to Sergio García, official and spokesperson for CSIF Prisons Madrid, one in three prisoners suffers from some mental disorder, according to data from the National Society of Legal Psychiatry. He complains about the “worrying shortage” of these professional staff: of a total of 173 positions for health personnel, 69 are vacant, “which seriously compromises medical care, the management of mental illnesses and security in penitentiary centers both for officials as well as inmates”: “The figure of the prison psychiatrist does not exist in the Madrid prisons, but rather a street psychiatrist comes to each center once a week to see a prison population of almost a thousand inmates per prison.”

This is how this shortage is divided: in the Madrid I Penitentiary Center (Alcalá Meco-Mujeres), it is 28% in the nursing positions; In Madrid II (Alcalá-Meco-Hombres), the most worrying shortage affects doctors, with a deficit of 88%, since, of the 8 available places, only one is covered.

In Aranjuez and Soto del Real, “only 3 of the 8 doctor positions are occupied, which represents a deficit of 63%: “The most serious situation is recorded in Estremera, where there is no filled doctor position, which represents a 100% deficit«.

In the opinion of CSIF, “staffing deficits significantly affect the care of inmates with mental illnesses, who constitute a growing proportion of the prison population”: “Some of the serious mental disorders faced by prison professionals They are psychotic disorders, bipolarity and schizophrenia, which require constant treatment; and increase in self-harm attempts due to lack of adequate psychological and psychiatric support.”

The insufficiency of health resources prevents adequate treatment and reintegration, adds García, who emphasizes that “this lack of care violates fundamental rights of inmates.”

From Penitentiary Institutions they explain to ABC that in Estremera there are three doctors providing service (two interim and one deputy medical director) and that there is a public employment offer for the corps of doctors, nurses and assistants.