Council of Europe Report Highlights Abuse and Torture in Spanish Prisons

• The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has reported a rising trend in abuse and torture within Spanish prisons.
• Over 14% of all reported incidents across 70 facilities are concentrated in three Andalusian prisons: Huelva, Algeciras, and Puerto III.
• Reported methods of abuse include beatings, kicks, use of batons, and "falaka" (beating the soles of feet).

Specific Prison Concerns

• Huelva: Operating at 134% capacity with a 50% shortage of medical staff. Inmates have reported physical assaults and homophobic verbal abuse, though the government maintains that investigations are ongoing and surveillance footage is often not preserved.
• Puerto III: Facing a 67% shortage of medical staff. Inmates report frequent withdrawal of medication and excessive use of force; the facility recorded 348 isolation measures in the study period.
• Algeciras: Characterized by high opacity regarding complaints and a history of high mortality rates. Between 2018 and 2024, at least 34 inmates died due to suicide or drug overdoses.

Structural Issues and Impunity

• Lack of Monitoring: Prisons frequently fail to implement recommendations, such as installing cameras to document injuries or maintaining accurate logs of abuse complaints.
• Barriers to Justice: Inmates rarely report abuse due to fear of retaliation and low trust in the judicial process, as many cases are archived without exhaustive investigation.
• Policy Context: Activists argue that the system favors a "tough-on-crime" approach over rehabilitation, with little political will to reform internal oversight mechanisms.
• Comparative Data: Spain holds some of the highest suicide rates in the EU with a prison average of 7.5 per 10,000 inmates, and an average sentence length of 20 months, significantly higher than the European average of 8.8 months.