Country

Spain

Detention issue

Healthcare

FRA research findings

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Legal instruments & key provisions

Legal instrument Key provision
General Penitentiary Law (Ley General Penitenciaria)Health care is guaranteed to all prisoners without exception and this care is equivalent to that which is provided to the rest of the population. Penitentiary establishments will have a medical team integrated by at least one general doctor, a nursing graduate and a nursing assistant, and, periodically, with a psychiatrist and a dentist. The women's centres will also have the services of a gynaecologist.

NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS

Year Recommendation Report
2017Spanish NPM alerted the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions about the situation of prisoners with auditory impairment. Report details
2019As the NPM has been remembering for years, in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, prison health services should be integrated into public health services. Law 16/2003, of May 28, on cohesion and quality of the National Health System, ordered that within 18 months from its entry into force and through the corresponding Royal Decree, to proceed with the integration, in accordance with the transfer system established by the statutes of autonomy. But so far this has only happened in the Basque Country and Catalonia. Report details
2019NPM considers that one of the main challenges of Spanish penitentiary system is related to people with mental illness. As already indicated in the previous report, it does not appear that this problem is in the process of being solved even for people who enter prison with a mental disorder, nor for those who develop it during the execution of the sentence Report details