SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.22 número3El impacto de encarcelación sobre el estado de nutrición y salud bucal entre reclusos del centro penitenciario de la ciudad de Jaipur, India índice de autoresíndice de materiabúsqueda de artículos
Home Pagelista alfabética de revistas  

Servicios Personalizados

Revista

Articulo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

  • En proceso de indezaciónCitado por Google
  • No hay articulos similaresSimilares en SciELO
  • En proceso de indezaciónSimilares en Google

Compartir


Revista Española de Sanidad Penitenciaria

versión On-line ISSN 2013-6463versión impresa ISSN 1575-0620

Rev. esp. sanid. penit. vol.22 no.3 Barcelona sep./dic. 2020  Epub 07-Dic-2020

https://dx.doi.org/10.18176/resp.00017 

Editorial

Prison overcrowding and over-occupation: what we are talking about and the situation in Spanish prisons

Hacinamiento y sobreocupación penitenciaria. De qué hablamos y cuál es la situación en las prisiones españolas

A Marco1  2  , J García-Guerrero3 

1Prison Health Programme. Catalonian Health Institute

2CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP).

3Assistant editor of the Spanish Journal of Prison Health.

This journal published an article on prison over-occupation and its impact on individual and collective health in 20121, and we have been asked to reflect on this issue eight years later. In 2012, there were 10.2 million inmates/day worldwide2. This figure now stands at 11 million, although the growth in the number of inmates has been very similar to the increase of the world population (3.7% vs. 3.0%, respectively in the last 3 years)3 and so it can reasonably be assumed that the prison population has remained stable over this period.

The fact that prison over-occupation is unacceptable and negatively impacts health is undeniable. One the one hand it is a breach of international prison standards4-7 and is also: a) a hazard to inmates' psychological and physical health; b) a public health risk; c) an underlying cause of danger for prisoners and prison professionals; and d) a breach of human rights, in which cruel and degrading treatment may be involved. The number of references in the literature on how this phenomenon affects the psychological and physical domains at individual, collective and environmental levels is immense.

The term “overcrowding” has been and continues to be widely used to refer to large numbers of inmates in penitentiary spaces that do not have the space to house them. However, this term is open-ended and lacks any clear consensus as to what it is exactly and how it can be measured8. There is an increasing tendency therefore to use the term over-occupation, which is more specific and measurable. In any case, there continues to be a certain degree of conceptual confusion, and it is not uncommon to find that the incarceration rate is used to indicate excess occupancy, which is really the rate of persons incarcerated per 100,000 inhabitants, without making any reference to the space or its characteristics. The level of prison occupation and the incarceration rate, or the crime rate, which is another concept that is often used, are not similar concepts, although they are sometimes indiscriminately and erroneously used. Spain for example has a crime rate (rate of crimes and misdemeanours per 1,000 inhabitants) of 45.69, which is considered to be a low one, and as a country it does not occupy a high place in the European classifications for the main types of crime (homicide, rape or robbery), and so it is regarded as one of the safest countries in Europe. However, the rate of incarceration or imprisonment, which in 2019 was 111 in Catalonia and 128.5 in the rest of Spain10, is one of the highest in Europe and almost double that of other countries in northern Europe, where the lowest rates are to be found. To measure prison occupation, the Council of Europe recommends using the “density”; or rather, the ratio between the number of inmates and the number of available places, expressed as the number of inmates per 100 places available. When this yardstick is used, there are about one hundred countries with prisons whose capacity is exceeded by more than 10%. There are more than 20 countries with over-occupation that exceeds 200%, a few countries whose over-occupation exceeds 400% or 500% and there is even one in the Republic of the Congo, which exceeds 600%3. Spain has an occupancy rate of 80%. It is important to point out that over-occupation is not only a patrimony of poor countries. According to the SPACE report of 202011, 15 European countries acknowledged that they had over-occupied prisons and 10 (8 of 10 member states of the European Union) defined the levels of over-occupation as “severe”.

The increasingly common use of “density” as a unit of measurement of occupation enables rates of occupation to be compared according to countries, geographical areas, socio-economic levels, etc., although there are still debates about this issue or on particular features that have yet to be agreed on. An example of this is the term “social density”, which measures the number of persons per given area, per wing, and even per dormitory or cell, and which may not positively or negatively coincide with the evaluation of global density.

As regards the occupation of the cells, the Mandela Rules or the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners12 recommend individual cells, although a Spanish study13 showed that 85% of inmates considered that sharing a cell with a fellow inmate could have some positive aspects (company, makes imprisonment more bearable, less anxiety, etc.), as well as the classic negative aspects (insecurity, lack of privacy, etc.). There may also be other permanent or temporary reasons to justify exceptions to the individual use of compartments, such as family reunification or a recommendation by medical staff.

Neither is there a definitive consensus on the minimum space that a cell should have. The European Prison Rules of the Council of Europe5 give no specific requirements for minimum space, but there are other recommendations that state that cells should have at least 5.4 square metres if they are individual ones6, others that consider that they should not be less than seven square metres14 while some that recommend that modern facilities should provide cells of at least 9-10 square metres14-15. In Spain, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment recently published a report on visits made to prisons in Catalonia between 6 and 13 September 2018, which comments on the “good overall conditions of detention, with cells of 10 m2 that are usually occupied by just one prisoner7. The CPT had planned to extend its periodic visits to other Spanish closed prisons in 2020, where the inmates' living conditions are likely to be similar to those in Catalonia.

The space and the number of inmates housed per cell is important, but there are also other relevant factors that might have an influence on inmates' level of health and which have not been studied to any great extent. The general recommendation is that inmates should spend at least 10 hours a day outside their dormitories or cells and participate in activities (exercise, work, training, religious activities, library, games, etc.), although other factors should also be taken into consideration, such as the quality of life, provision of staff and the range of activities on offer4. Many of these factors may be limited by the socio-economic level of the prisons' location.

A prison has rehabilitative functions, but alongside those it also serves the purpose of detaining and holding in custody persons incarcerated as a result of legal rulings. Inmates depend on the Administration, which should guarantee: a) adequate environmental conditions, to the extent that imprisonment does not become hazardous for the inmate's life or health; and b) suitable structural conditions and human and material provisions. Some of these, such as medical personnel, are clearly lacking at present; at least in prisons managed by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. The Administration has the obligation to improve environmental conditions so as to prevent the loss of freedom from also becoming a loss of health. To do so, it is essential to assign specific economic resources that ensure that structural deficits are eliminated and that also improve healthcare conditions for the prison population.

REFERENCES

1. García-Guerrero J, Marco A. Sobreocupación en los centros penitenciarios y su impacto en la salud. Rev Esp Sanid Penit. 2012;14(3):106-13. [ Links ]

2. Wansley R. World Prison Population List (tenth edition). International Centre for Prison Studies. [Internet]. Disponible en: https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdfLinks ]

3. Wansley R. International Centre for Prison Studies. World Prison Population List (twelfth edition). [Internet]. World Prison Brief. Disponible en: https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_12.pdfLinks ]

4. Oficina de las Naciones Unidas de Servicios para Proyectos. Orientaciones Técnicas para la planificación de Establecimientos Penitenciarios. [Internet]. Conpenhague: UNOPS; 2016. Disponible en: https://content.unops.org/publications/Technical-guidance-Prison-Planning-2016_ES.pdf?mtime=20171215190049Links ]

5. Consejo de Europa. Reglas Penitenciarias Europeas. [Internet]. Disponible en: http://www.institucionpenitenciaria.es/web/export/sites/default/datos/descargables/legislacion/REG_PEN_EUR_ES.pdfLinks ]

6. Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja. Agua, Saneamiento, Higiene y Hábitat en las Cárceles. Guía complementaria. [Internet]. CICR; 2013. Disponible en: https://www.icrc.org/es/doc/assets/files/publications/icrc-002-4083.pdfLinks ]

7. European Committe for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Report to the Spanish Government on the visit to Spain carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 6 to 13 September 2018. [Internet]. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa; 2020. [Citado: 20 Feb 2020]. Disponible en: https://rm.coe.int/16809a5597Links ]

8. Ariza LJ, Torres MA. Definiendo el hacinamiento. Estándares normativos y perspectivas judiciales sobre el espacio penitenciario. [Internet]. Estud Socio-Juridic, Bogotá. 2019;21(2):227-58. Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/esju/v21n2/0124-0579-esju-21-02-227.pdfLinks ]

9. Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Tasa de homicidios y criminalidad por CCAA, tipo de tasa y periodo. [Internet]. INE; 2020. Disponible en: https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?path=/t00/ICV/dim6/l0/&file=61101.px#!tabs-tablaLinks ]

10. Departament de Justícia de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Descriptors estadístics serveis penitenciaris. Evolució de la població a presons. Últim dia de cada mes. [Internet]. Disponible en: http://www.gencat.cat/justicia/estadistiques_serveis_penitenciaris/1_pob.htmlLinks ]

11. Aebi MF, Tiago MM. Prisons and Prisoners in Europe 2018: Key Findings of the SPACE I report. [Internet]. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa; 2019. [Citado: 2 Sep 2020]. Disponible en: https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_513D04633276.P001/REFLinks ]

12. Naciones Unidas. 70/175. Reglas Mínimas de las Naciones Unidas para el Tratamiento de los Reclusos (Reglas Nelson Mandela). [Resolución]. [Internet]. Naciones Unidas; 8 Ene 2016. Disponible en: https://www.acnur.org/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2016/10266.pdfLinks ]

13. Benito F, Gil M, Vicente MA. Efectos aparejados por el hecho de compartir celda. Revista de Estudios Penitenciarios. 2007;253:9-29. [ Links ]

14. Asociación Interamericana de Defensorías Públicas. Manual Regional de Buenas Prácticas Penitenciarias. Documento de Trabajo número 37. [Internet]. Madrid: AIDEF; 2015. Disponible en: https://www.abogacia.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Manual-Regional-de-Buenas-Practicas-Penitenciarias.pdfLinks ]

15. Comité Europeo para la Prevención de la Tortura, Consejo Europeo. Commentary to Recommendation Rec (2005) of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the European Prison Rules. Comentarios sobre la Regla 18. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa; 2005. [ Links ]

Correspondence: Andrés Marco. Enfermedades Infecciosas, Programa de Salud Penitenciaria. Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes, 587-589, Barcelona, 08007. E-Mail: amarco@gencat.cat / andres.marco.m@gmail.com

Creative Commons License This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License