The protests by Catalan prison officials following the murder of a cook at the hands of a prisoner last Wednesday have confirmed the inability of the acting Government of Pere Aragonès to stop the open crisis in the prisons. Since Friday, intermittently, workers’ blockades have forced prisoners to be locked in their cells, suspended trials, visits, communications, and have interrupted the normal functioning of most centers. The Department of Justice of the Generalitat has once again appealed to dialogue, and has called another meeting for this Tuesday at nine in the morning. The unions have so far stood up to counselor Gemma Ubasart, who has summoned them on several occasions, and demand as a prior measure to sit down to negotiate that the secretary of penitentiary measures, Amand Calderó, resign. The blockades yesterday forced 4,000 inmates to be confined.
The meeting of the Government’s crisis committee, between the Justice and Interior departments, came this Monday after days of criticism for the apparent lack of coordination between both departments. The more than two hours ended, as explained by spokesperson Patrícia Plaja, with a review of how the day of protests had gone and the promise to “coordinate” for the coming days. But neither she nor the head of Justice were able to propose a realistic schedule for the situation in prisons to return to normal. The counselor did rule out Calderó’s dismissal. “A resignation or dismissal has never been on the table,” Ubasart repeated when asked if Calderó had made his position available to him as a way to overcome the blockage in the negotiations. The counselor praised the work of the senior official, whom she sees as the person who “can best command the system and the crisis before us.” Plaja stressed that the Government is open to a clarification of responsibilities but not a priori, but when these are, she said, clarified and delimited.
The Government has not been able to do anything other than insist to the unions on the need for them to sit at the table to discuss a way out of the crisis and make public the proposals that Justice wanted to offer to the workers. This list includes, for example, the mechanisms for early retirement; the launch of a group of 111 workers specially trained to intervene in especially violent cases; and negotiate the update of the labor agreement, which has remained in force since 2006. The counselor recalled that although the legislature has just over 50 days left, there is still room to resolve the situation of prison officials and recalled projects in progress such as the creation of a Catalan body of prison workers. With the Center for Reintegration Initiatives (CIRE), for which the murdered cook, Núria López, worked, he added that measures have been agreed upon that can be put into operation “in 48 hours” such as providing communication and alert devices to the staff. and that its use is mandatory, reinforcing kitchen services with at least two workers.
To try to bring the unions to the table, Ubasart also announced that he would let them know at the meeting called some of the details of the internal investigation into the murder of the cook. The counselor advanced that so far there is no record of possible complaints from the worker about the behavior of her murderer, Iulian Odriste, who was assigned to the kitchen. The man was serving a sentence for having murdered, also by stabbing, a prostitute in 2016. Justice has opened an internal investigation and there is also an open judicial process into the circumstances of the crime, which for officials has marked a before and after. This is the first murder in prison, during the democratic period in Spain, of a prison worker.
Yesterday, workers once again blocked access to the prisons, which led to more than 4,000 inmates being confined to their cells due to lack of personnel to guarantee security. The Mossos d’Esquadra intervened yesterday only in the Quatre Camins prison (La Roca del Vallès, Barcelona), one of the most combative, and achieved an access route that allowed the relief of the workers. But in the rest, the blockades that have been in place since Friday were repeated. The Government recalled that prisoners are not covered by the call for a strike, and opened the door to sanctioning workers who do not show up for their jobs. “It is their obligation,” Ubasart insisted.
The crisis has also highlighted the contradictions and imbalances of the Republican Left Government (ERC), with one eye already on the early electoral call on May 12. Despite requests for help from Justice, the intervention of the Department of the Interior has been rather timid. Neither on Friday, during the first blockade of the centers, which forced 5,000 prisoners to be confined, nor on Saturday—with 1,200 people locked in their rooms—did the Catalan police intervene. The Mossos have taken five days to activate a coordination center (CECOR), and so far they have not clarified whether they will prevent new blockades in the prisons. Police intervention would not, by itself, mean the end of the conflict. Pickets and barricades “make access” to prisons difficult, explains Justice, but they do not prevent it in all cases. It is the officials who, for whatever reason – most, because they defend the need to protest, others because of environmental pressure – are not going to their jobs. Ubasart defended this Monday that there is “full coordination and contact” with the Interior and the Department of the Presidency.
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The confinement, which Justice compares to the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic, not only puts the safety of workers at risk, but also violates the rights “of the inmates and their families,” added the secretary of alternative penal measures, reintegration and care for the victim of the Generalitat, Amand Calderó.
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