Too many prisoners, too few guards and failures in equipment, management and prison organization. These are the conclusions of the audit of 49 prisons in the country after the escape of 5 inmates from Vale de Judeus prison. The audit requested by the Government in September is ready but will not be revealed for security reasons
The report was delivered last Friday, but the to avoid public exposure of security risks in Portuguese prisons.
Overcrowded, with a “shortage of prison guards on duty, an “insufficiency of those in charge of video surveillance”, watchtowers that don’t work, old and dilapidated cellular and general service vehicles.
Visiting locations are often inadequate. There are preventive inmates in establishments designed for sentenced inmates, and prisons in need of work.
“Note that the Portuguese State in the last five years has paid more than one million in compensation to prisoners for the inhumane conditions in which they live. The union has been announcing this for a long time. I even jokingly said once in the first commission that I hoped they wouldn’t point the finger at me for saying there could be an escape”, says Frederico Morais, from the national union of prison officers
The audit evaluated 49 prisons. Commissioned by the Government 4 months ago after the escape of five inmates from Vale de Judeus prison, it highlights flaws in the organization and management of human resources.
Detects prolonged absences with a high incidence of accidents on the job, occupational illnesses and sick leave. It also notes the advanced age group of prison guards, which the new director general had already considered insufficient.
“There is an urgent need to reinforce the surveillance staff in prisons and implement a multi-year recruitment and incorporation plan. We also urgently need to reorganize the various existing careers. Without these issues resolved, there is no possibility of us being remotely successful”, he says. Orlando Carvalho, General Director of Reinsertion and Prison Services
“There needs to be technology, but in tune with the human material that is the prison guard body. The Government in this report says that it will take measures, but it is important that we move to action”, he states Frederico Morais.
The report points out flaws in infrastructure and limitations such as the lack of a system that prevents the throwing of objects in some prison establishments.
The Government has limited itself, for now, to distributing a statement from the Minister of Justice with the main conclusions of the audit, which only says that it has already asked the General Directorate of Reinsertion and Prison Services to immediately begin the plan to correct the flaws detected.
