Workers of the Tahíche Penitentiary Center gathered at 12 noon this Wednesday at the prison gates to show their rejection of "the attempted murder of a colleague in Madrid" and to denounce the "abandonment" they suffer from politicians. "The lack of resources, training and authority endangers our lives," they say.
According to the association of prison workers 'Your abandonment can kill me', the events took place on Monday in the Soto del Real prison, when "an inmate classified in the first degree, one of the 'weakest' according to Minister Grande-Marlaska', requested "to make a phone call before returning to his cell" after "receiving religious assistance".
During the course of it, according to the group, the prisoner pretended to "feel unwell" and fell "to the ground", with the officials on duty in the department going "immediately" to "help him". However, at that moment, according to the association of prison workers, the inmate used "a homemade sharp object that he had managed to hide in his body to try to end the lives of the workers who had come to help him".
"Only luck avoided a greater misfortune," say from 'Your abandonment can kill me', from where they point out that "one of the officials received several stabs of various consideration, one of them in the neck."
A situation "increasingly unsustainable" in prisons
From this association of prison workers they point out that they have been "months" warning that the situation in prisons "is increasingly unsustainable". "The lack of resources, training and authority endangers our lives every time we leave home to comply with the constitutional mandate that we have entrusted," they denounce.
In this sense, they affirm that they are "detecting how, for some time now, many inmates, individually, or organized in groups under ethnic, religious or cultural criteria, are increasingly reluctant and belligerent when it comes to obeying orders from officials". "The simple presence of this one in the courtyard bothers them and they show it more and more evidently," he adds.
"These 'weak' people know perfectly well that the uniformed man in front of them is alone, abandoned and has no authority over them. In addition, they are aware that a physical or verbal aggression will be practically free. They have nothing to lose and they know that they have the complicity and understanding of our rulers, as derived from the words that Mr. Grande-Marlaska addressed to them in parliamentary headquarters", they criticize from 'Your abandonment can kill me'.
This association of prison workers affirm, however, that "unfortunate" situations such as the one experienced in Soto del Real, "reinforce" their "commitment to the prison collective". "The abandonment we suffer does not understand electoral, pre-electoral or post-electoral periods. It remains in force 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whether there is a Government or it is in office", he points out.
For that reason, he affirms that he will continue "pressuring politicians to restore dignity to this group". "We do not believe their promises and we are going to be present throughout the electoral campaign in their acts and rallies, reminding them that their abandonment can kill us", warns the association, which shows its "solidarity" to the attacked colleagues wishing them a speedy recovery, both physical and psychological".