There was nothing to indicate that the prisoner who killed the head chef of the Mas d’Enric prison could act in this way. Neither the reports of the professionals of the prison’s treatment board nor the opinion of the professionals who supervised his activities at the center alerted in the eight years that he was interned that the inmate presented bad behavior or a violent attitude. This was underlined yesterday by the Minister of Justice, Gemma Ubasart, in an appearance at her own request in Parliament to report on the crime that took the life of the Tarragona prison worker, Núria López, at the hands of an inmate who was serving a sentence for murder
They were the minister’s first explanations about the case, and they come a week and a day after the events and in the context of an open crisis with prison officials, who demand the assumption of responsibilities and the resignation of the secretary of penal measures
The prison’s treatment board assessed the inmate’s progress up to 14 times since entering the facility and each time concluded that “the likelihood that the inmate would behave violently toward other inmates or against the penitentiary staff was low”. The professionals used the RisCanvi, an algorithm that based on the analysis of 44 variables predicts the risk of recidivism of an inmate. “All the risk parameters were low”, stressed the minister. The last assessment to which the inmate was subjected was on July 13, 2023 and he also ruled out the risk of recidivism. “It was difficult to predict, the risk was low”, he reiterated.
The intern, Iulian Odriste, had “good behavior” and was a reserved person who did not relate to anyone. “He had recognized the facts” for which he was serving a sentence, although he said he did not remember them because he was very drunk when he committed the crime. In 2016, he had killed a woman engaged in prostitution in Valls. He cut her throat with a kitchen knife after an argument.
The councilor explained that, since entering prison, Odriste had presented “good conduct”. “He had always presented himself as a polite person, correct in his dealings, reserved and with little interaction with the rest of the inmates. He was considered a person worthy of trust and a very good worker”. “Throughout the evaluation system, the evaluations were mostly level A, the highest in the system.” The prisoner was initially assigned to the production workshops, where he handled food, and a few years later moved to the kitchen, where “no difficulty in controlling impulses or any violent behavior was detected”. In October of last year, he was sentenced to 11 days of solitary confinement in a cell for punching another inmate who was insulting him. He was removed from the kitchen service, but returned to it in January “at the request of those responsible for the CIRE kitchen and in agreement with the treatment board”.
However, the councilor specified that the inmate did not undergo psychosocial intervention programs because he had no incentive to go out on the streets. He had no family or anyone to wait for him and he dedicated himself to work to save and have money when he left.
These programs are used to progress through the degree and be able to go out on the streets with permits or to work. The minister described the crime of the prison worker as “exceptional”, highlighted the good functioning of the Catalan prison system and announced the launch of new measures, such as the incorporation of more prison staff, to strengthen the security of officials in prisons.
