Decongest the prisons and achieve faster reintegration into society of people who commit crimes. The Department of Justice announced this Friday a strategic plan with 15 measures to reduce admissions in penitentiary centers, betting on the open regime (for example, only going to sleep), restorative justice (reparation of damage to the victim) and the rehabilitation of the prisoner. Two of the star measures are two pilot plans: the use of GPS monitoring bracelets as an alternative to entering provisional prison while awaiting trial and the creation of criminal teams that will advise judges and that will be made up of social workers, psychologists and criminologists.
The Government presents a plan to decongest prisons and achieve faster reintegration
42% of the prisoners (3,338 inmates) who currently live in Catalan prisons are preventive prisoners awaiting trial or serving a sentence of less than two years in prison. It is a very high figure and hence the open regime is promoted for this inmate population, especially when it is demonstrated that the possibility of the prisoner not losing contact with the street or with his work allows reducing recidivism. For the Department of Justice, admission to a closed prison should be the last measure to be applied.
42% of Catalan prisoners are in preventive detention or serving a sentence of less than two years
The ‘Councillor’ of Justice, Rights and Memory, Gemma Ubasart, He assured at the event held at the Palau Robert in Barcelona that the so-called National Penitentiary Obertalitat Strategy is an ambitious project, whose objective is to “advance social cohesion and citizen security.” It is, she specified, “a country strategy that has to lay the foundations to give new impetus to the Catalan commitment to the open environment and reintegration.” An impulse, he added, “that contributes to shaping the model of society we fly: a more cohesive, safer and victimless society.” And given the high rate of preventive prisoners with a sentence of less than two years, the head of Justice pointed out that “as political leaders we have the obligation to put the eyes, resources and tools necessary to reduce internment.”
The three axes of the project
The initiative is built on three axes: the impulse of the open middle and transition in the community; the principle of proportionality and admission to prison as the last ratio and the reinforcement of reintegration mechanisms within penitentiary centers. In this sense, a latest study on recidivism points out that 26% of people who finish their sentence in the second degree (closed regime) reoffend, compared to 10% of those who do so if they progress to an open regime.
Among the most notable measures that appear in the plan is the push of the open medium. The percentage of inmates classified in third degree or probation has suffered a drop in the last three years (from 31.5% to 25%). For this reason, the department is working on the goal of reaching 30% in three years. To achieve this, new grade progression criteria will be transferred to the treatment teams of the penitentiary centers, who are the ones who decide on the classifications of the inmates. The requirements will also be expanded so that more people can access the third degree classification (open regime) at the time of the start of serving the sentence.
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One of the most innovative measures is the pilot plan to introduce the use of GPS bracelets as an alternative to entering preventive detention. In Catalonia, 20% of the total number of people deprived of liberty are in provisional prison awaiting trial (1,663). The result of this pilot plan will allow us to verify if it is effective and if judges incorporate it as an alternative in preventive detention. Along the same lines of giving judges tools to have evaluation elements, a second pilot will be developed with a criminal technical team that will advise the judicial bodies when making decisions regarding ordinary and extraordinary suspensions of prison sentences.
Other initiatives included in this plan are in line with promoting restorative justice, both in the investigation and investigation phase and in the execution of the sentence. To achieve this, the Department of Justice will strengthen the restorative justice teams and the dialogue between the department and legal operators to refer more cases to restorative justice before the prison sentence is carried out. That is, trying to reach an agreement between the victim and the person who committed the crime. In this way, judges can suspend the custodial sentence. Through this means the victim would obtain the desired reparation and the accused would avoid admission to a penitentiary center as long as he complied with the agreement.