Through its Protection and Security Services Commission, the Unified Association of Civil Guards has addressed the Inspection of Personnel and Security Services of the Ministry of the Interior, and the head of the Civil Guard in the Canary Islands, General Juan Hernández, to request their intervention in the face of "the repeated breaches that are occurring in the custody and transfer of prisoners" in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
The submitted documents state that the civil guards of the Security Section of the Tahíche Penitentiary Center are being forced to guard the inmates of said center in the judicial headquarters of Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura) and Arrecife (Lanzarote), when the territorial competence in said municipalities corresponds to the National Police, so agents of that body should be in charge of the aforementioned custody.
Therefore, according to them, what is established in Instruction 5/2009 of the Secretary of State for Security is being violated, which establishes the protocols for the conduct and custody of inmates of penitentiary centers, clearly specifying that "the custody of inmates outside penitentiary establishments will correspond to the Police Force that has assigned territorial competence in the place of stay", except in hospitals. Furthermore, the Organic Law of Security Forces and Corps is also being contravened.
But these are not the only breaches detected, because the civil guards of said unit are having to transfer prisoners from the Tahiche penitentiary center to Fuerteventura in ships that do not have cabin-cells, so they have to guard them on the deck of the ship, with the serious security risks that this entails.
In their writings, AUGC recalls that the Civil Guard protocol for these services establishes that in maritime conductions of prisoners, the ships must have cabin-cells equipped for the inmates and the custody agents. Furthermore, it points out that by transferring them on the deck of the ship, the risks of escapes and attacks on civil guards are increased, even with the support of third parties.
And, it adds, that this way of carrying out the conductions also affects the rights of the prisoners themselves, violating the General Penitentiary Organic Law, which orders that these transfers be carried out in a way that preserves the dignity and privacy of the inmates, as well as the right to have their status as prisoners reserved from third parties.