Prison officials have called for a resumption of protest actions this Monday and are considering blocking access to Catalan prisons again. The mobilizations to demand greater security for prison workers after the murder of Núria López, the kitchen manager at the Tarragona prison, caused nearly 5,000 inmates to be locked in their cells for a whole day, without a patio or activities in the prison. 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 were confined for two days. This Sunday, with the situation normalized and in view of the new protests planned for this Monday, the Minister of Justice, Gemma Ubasart, warned, in a press appearance, that the Government will work so that the situation “does not happen again” and recovers the normality in prisons.
The Executive will mobilize the Mossos d’Esquadra to guarantee that workers can enter and leave the centers and ordinary life can be resumed. 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 Interior colleague, 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 ignored with the arguments of lack of troops and the consequence that the use of force would have had. This Sunday, after insisting again and the mediation of other members of the Government, the police director, Pere Ferrer, gave the go-ahead. The riot police are alerted, as well as the Arro from the police regions who will be the first to arrive at the prisons at dawn, coinciding with the early shift change. The King inaugurates the Alimentaria hall this Monday, which forces a good part of the riot units to be allocated to that device.
The councilor did not give any clues about what police action would be like in prisons and limited herself to saying that “several scenarios” are contemplated. She even left open the possibility that the police could replace officials inside the prisons. “The point,” she stated, “is to guarantee normality and security.” Ubasart once again reached out to officials to meet to negotiate new conditions. In fact, the councilor has called the unions this morning. An appointment that the workers’ representatives already rejected last night. The Government has changed the interlocutors to accommodate the demands of the unions that demanded the exclusion of the secretary of penal measures, Amand Calderó, whom they blame for the insecurity. The councilor came forward and confirmed the continuity of the secretary, highlighting his dedication to “a penitentiary model that is a European example.”
The announcement of the possible deployment of the Mossos in prisons angered the unions even more. “We take the appearance as a threat, and this way we are not going well,” said UGT spokesperson, Xavier Martínez. The CSIF coordinator, Alberto Gómez, assured that Ubasart’s words were “a shame.” This week, as announced by the counselor, the conclusions of the internal investigation commissioned by her department into the murder of the Mas d’ Enric kitchen manager at the hands of a prisoner will be known.
The group of prison cooks released a statement in which they warned that “it is no coincidence that the murdered companion was a cook” and highlighted “the special vulnerability” they suffer. “We carry out our task by working directly with inmates armed with knives, axes and other tools that could be used as unprotected knives. Our position is not even considered highly dangerous. We consider that measures must be taken urgently,” they said.
