Prison officials have called for today to resume protest actions and are considering blocking access to Catalan prisons again. The mobilizations to demand more security for prison workers after the murder of Núria López, the kitchen manager of the Tarragona prison, caused last week around 5,000 inmates to be locked in their cells for a whole day, no playground or activities in the modules. The situation reached its limit on Saturday, when the prisons of Quatre Camins, Joves and Wad-Ras continued with the blockade and 1,200 prisoners added two days of confinement. Yesterday, with the situation normalized and due to the new protests planned for Monday, the Minister of Justice, Gemma Ubasart, warned in a press conference that the Government will work to ensure that the situation “does not happen again” and to restore normalcy in prisons
The Executive will mobilize the Mossos d’Esquadra to ensure that workers can enter and leave the centers and that ordinary life resumes. This weekend the Government formed a crisis committee with the presence of the Presidency, Justice and Interior departments to follow the evolution of the conflict. After the first blockade on Friday, the Minister of Justice asked her colleague for the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, to send the Mossos to put an end to a situation that forced thousands of inmates to remain locked up. A request neglected with the arguments of lack of cash and the consequences that the use of force would have had. Yesterday, after insisting again and the mediation of other members of the Government, the director of the police, Pere Ferrer, gave the go-ahead. The anti-riots of the mobile brigade are alerted, as are the ARROs of the police regions, who will be the first to arrive at the prisons in the morning, coinciding with the early shift change. The King inaugurates the Alimentaria hall on Monday, a fact that forces a large part of the anti-riot units to be allocated to this device.
The councilor did not give any hints about what police action would be like in the prisons and limited herself to saying that “several scenarios” are being considered. He even left open the possibility that the police could replace officials inside the prisons. “The case – he affirmed – is to guarantee normality and safety”. Ubasart again reached out to officials to meet to negotiate new terms. In fact, the minister has called the unions for this morning. An appointment that was already rejected by the workers’ representatives last night. The Government has changed interlocutors to accommodate the demands of the unions who demanded the exclusion of the Secretary of Penal Measures, Amand Calderó, whom they hold responsible for the insecurity. The councilor stepped forward and ratified the secretary’s continuity, highlighting his dedication to “a prison model that is a European example”.
The announcement of the possible deployment of the Mossos in prisons further angered the unions. “We take the appearance as a threat, and in this way we are not doing well”, said the spokesperson of the UGT, Xavier Martínez. The CSIF coordinator, Alberto Gómez, assured that Ubasart’s words were “a shame”. This week, as the minister announced, the conclusions of the internal investigation commissioned by her department into the murder of the kitchen manager of Mas d’Enric at the hands of a prisoner will be known.
The collective of prison cooks issued a statement in which they warned that “it is not by chance that the murdered colleague was a cook” and highlighted “the special vulnerability” they suffer. “We carry out our work by working directly with inmates armed with knives, axes and other tools likely to be used as an unprotected edged weapon. Our site is not even considered high risk. We consider that measures must be taken urgently”, they said.
