What is penitentiary law?
Penitentiary law is the set of provisions that regulate the execution of custodial sentences and security measures contained in the Penal Code. The foundation of the Spanish penitentiary system is based on the resocialising paradigm.
Article 25 of the Spanish Constitution provides that “custodial sentences and security measures shall be aimed at the re-education and social reintegration of the offender”. Likewise, Article 2 of the Penitentiary Regulations states that “The primary aim of penitentiary activity is the reeducation and reintegration of those sentenced to custodial sentences and security measures”. Thus, in Spain, the execution of a custodial sentence is aTributed a primary function of special prevention: to influence, through penitentiary treatment, the behaviour of the prisoner, so that he or she may gradually adapt to the value system of the community.
To enable appropriate treatment to be carried out, aWer admission to the penitentiary centre, each inmate is assigned a penitentiary situation that corresponds to a degree (first degree or closed regime; second degree or ordinary regime; third degree or open regime). These grades correspond to a certain model of prison establishment, as well as to a regime of life in prison (leave, yard timetables, activities, etc.). The inmate will progress through the grades, depending on various circumstances, and has the possibility of appealing against decisions that keep him/her in a lower grade than that to which he/she is entitled by law, if the requirements for each grade are met. The last part of the sentence, called the fourth degree by doctrine, is called conditional release and in a recent reform it has been framed within the regime of suspension of the sentence.
A person sentenced to a custodial sentence, by virtue of a final judgement, must enter (if the sentence has not been suspended for various reasons) a penitentiary centre. As a rule, he or she is summoned to the sentencing court and given a warrant to enter the prison at his or her own expense (voluntary presentation). However, it cannot be ruled out that you may be taken by the police. From this point onwards, life in prison, the possibilities of progression and the struggle for freedom begin.
At Bárbara Royo we are specialists both in the specific dynamics and customs of prisons and in Prison Law in general, so that our clients do not have to give up the possibility of enjoying their permits and progressing to a higher grade as soon as possible.
