The UGT union section in the Tahíche prison has denied that there have been transfers of Lanzarote prisoners who were serving their sentences outside the island to the prison in Conejera. The union delegate, Raquel Ábalo, has assured that it is "totally false" that around thirty inmates have managed to return to Lanzarote to serve their sentences. Despite this denial, the Association for Law and Justice, which last week reported the transfers, affirms that there are Lanzarote prisoners who have returned to the island, although they cannot specify how many.
For its part, the UGT has assured that at this time the penitentiary center is at the limit of its capacity for inmates, adding preventive and sentenced prisoners. Thus, they have added that for "two months" there have been "very few empty places with the current structure". "This overcrowding is mainly due to specific orders from the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, which prohibits transfers to other penitentiary centers in the peninsula and islands, mainly because we are awaiting the delivery of the second phase" of the prison, according to the unions.
This second phase, which was inaugurated two months ago by the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions, Mercedes Gallizo, and by the socialist councilor, Manuela Armas, "is still not operational", according to the union. Therefore, the UGT does not understand why the Association for Law and Justice assured that the transfer of Lanzarote prisoners to this module had taken place. "We do not understand the frivolity of the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions regarding such a delicate issue as the transfer of prisoners to Lanzarote. We do not understand why this information has not been denied by Madrid", the UGT insisted.
The union has acknowledged that Madrid is "pressuring" the management of the Tahíche Penitentiary Center to put the new modules into operation "as soon as possible". Among the plans of Penitentiary Institutions, according to the UGT, are to "send 70 inmates from other prisons in the peninsula and the islands in early June and so on until filling the 172 operational places in the second phase".
Multiple security flaws
The UGT has also taken advantage of this statement to assure that Penitentiary Institutions has "devastating reports" on the new modules. "In terms of security, there are multiple mechanical, electrical and telecommunications failures", it has indicated. "The fire-fighting equipment in the modules does not work, the hoses are short and do not reach specific places and there are other failures that cannot be specified, as they may endanger both the integrity of the inmate and that of the official or workers of the center", it has denounced.
According to this union, "it seems that both the General Secretary, Mercedes Gallizo, and the management of the center and those responsible for the State Society of Penitentiary Infrastructures and Equipment do not care about these incidents". Thus, as the UGT has explained, this same Monday and for several days these modules will be inhabited by "volunteer inmates". "They are not very conflictive and in principle they are going to act as human guinea pigs, together with the officials on duty in these modules", the union has pointed out.
Finally, it has insisted that it is against using these modules at least until knowing what report is issued by the head of service in prevention and occupational hazards, who this Wednesday, May 18, will review the installation.
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