The General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions has given instructions to the prisons dependent on the Ministry of the Interior – all except those of Catalonia and the Basque Country, with the management transferred – so that those that do not yet have them install video surveillance cameras in the rooms where they are practiced. strip searches of inmates, according to an internal document to which EL PAÍS has had access. These spaces concentrate a large part of the complaints of ill-treatment presented by prisoners, according to the Ombudsman’s annual reports. In fact, the application of this measure, which will also be extended to the cells in which mechanical restraint is applied to inmates for a long time to supervise how these containment measures have been developed, is an old recommendation from the body headed by Ángel Gabilondo.
With the extension of video surveillance systems – sources from Penitentiary Institutions prefer to speak of “homogenization” – Interior intends to avoid, on the one hand, cases of mistreatment of prisoners, but also to uncover possible unfounded accusations of these against prison officials. The measure is launched when almost two years have passed since the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, dependent on the Council of Europe, initiated an investigation into the alleged ill-treatment suffered, in September 2020, by a prisoner in the prison of Estremera (Madrid). The inmate, who had bruises on his buttocks, legs and soles of his feet when he was visited by a delegation from this committee, reported having been beaten by several officials in the search room of his module, in which there were no cameras. . After the incident, which has been investigated by a court and the Interior, the management of this prison installed video recording devices in these spaces, prison sources point out.
Now, this measure, which is already established in more centers, according to sources from Penitentiary Institutions, is going to be mandatory for all prisons within the adaptation to the latest modification of the data protection law. These same sources detail that each center must report the current status of its video surveillance systems – “some are old” – and what its needs are to implement the new measures. “He has been working on it for more than eight years,” they say. The internal instruction – which will come into force in mid-August and gives the centers three months to adapt their internal regime procedures – will regulate the use of these video recording systems, “a legitimate prevention tool” and which is considered “an instrument to support the exercise of the powers of prison staff to guarantee personal and collective security”.
The document recalls that the common areas of the prisons, the spaces destined “for the deposit and custody of objects, documents or values” and the center’s vehicle parking must continue to be subject to this type of surveillance. On the contrary, it is still prohibited to record images of the public roads surrounding the prison, except when it is essential for security reasons; and inside the cells, bathrooms, changing rooms, and rooms where inmates maintain communications with family members and lawyers. The instruction opens the possibility for officials to carry “mobile recording devices.”
The document adds other spaces in the enclosure where it will now be “necessary” to have video surveillance. In addition to the strip search rooms (where special measures will be adopted to preserve the inmate’s privacy) and the cells intended for mechanical restraint, they must be installed in the rooms where the coercive means (rubber defenses, aerosols and shackles) are kept. ) used by officials to determine who accesses them and the cells used to apply the provisional isolation of inmates. The document adds that the images in these places will be “reserved” and can only be accessed “for the exercise of supervision by the competent authority.” In fact, they can only be extracted when there is a “complaint or complaint” of alleged abuse to make it “available to the competent authority.” If there is no complaint, after three months “they will be destroyed ex officio without being removed from the system.” In his latest report, the Ombudsman recommended that this period be raised to a minimum of six months.
The images recorded in the rest of the video-monitored spaces will only have to be kept for 30 days. However, those related to events in which inmates or officials have suffered injuries, with “serious or very serious incidents” (kidnappings, riots, plantings, escapes…), with denouncements or complaints of inmates for mistreatment or when a judicial or internal investigation is opened related to an event that occurred in the areas with cameras.
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To guarantee the legal validity of the recording, the instruction details that “viewing and extracting the images will only be carried out by personnel expressly designated” by the center’s management and, in addition, a procedure of “individualized keys or codes” will be enabled. to identify in a “reliable and indubitable manner each of the persons designated” for this purpose. “This will allow to prove the traceability and non-alteration” of the images, adds the letter.
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