The acting Ombudsman of Spain is preparing a study on inmates with disabilities in prisons, aware of the vulnerability of this group. With this action, the Institution wants to know the situation of these people. According to the Spanish Committee of representatives of people with disabilities (CERMI) more than 4,000 people with disabilities are currently in prison in all Spanish territory.
The Second Deputy of the Ombudsman, Concepció Ferrer, met today at the headquarters of the Institution, with the delegate of Human Rights of CERMI, Jesús Martín Blanco, to address this issue.
The issues related to penitentiary centers and to people with disabilities is under the jurisdiction of Second Deputy Concepció Ferrer, which has been transmitted to the CERMI representative that the Institution has already made a first visit to one of the modules for people with disabilities that exist in Spain. Ferrer explained that on February 28, accompanied by technicians from the Ombudsman, she visited the Madrid VII Prison Facility, in Estremera, where there is a specific module for inmates with intellectual disabilities.
The Institution will continue visiting other penitentiary centers where there is a prisoner population with disabilities to know the reality of these people first hand and to propose measures that make their life easier in prisions throughout the territory.
The Ombudsman, who continuously supervises the places of deprivation of liberty by constitutional and legal mandate, has kept open an action on this matter since 2003.
