Transparency Policies in Prison: Carceral Institutions in Spain and Catalonia

• In Event: Censorship, Evacuations, and Transparency in Prisons

Abstract

This study presents an initial exploration of the concept of transparency within the Spanish Prison system (SGIP), the Catalan prison system (SMPRAV), and the Spanish immigration detention system (CIES). This exploration is part of the "Prison Transparency Project," which aims to gather comparative information on prison and immigration detention systems in Canada, Spain, and Argentina. The Spanish case was approached by examining secondary sources where the concept of transparency is mentioned in relation to the three types of carceral systems, including institutional documents, websites, regulations, journals, and books. The initial findings, systematically organized and coded for future project stages, highlight similarities in the content of transparency policies (Grimmelikhuijsen and Welch, 2012) in both prison administrations and differences with the immigration detention system. Additionally, they show that an area of interest for future inquiries may be the availability and flow of information inside out (Cucciniello et al. 2017) in the three carceral systems. Finally, there is a focus on how transparency refers to intervened or self-governing citizens (Kosack & Fung, 2014) such as incarcerated individuals, their families, civil society organizations, or academics, among others.

Authors

• Quimey Martinez Magarzo, Prison Transparency Project (Carleton University) - Observatori Del Sistema Penal els Drets Humans (Universitat de Barcelona)

• Elena Algaba, Prison Transparency Project (Carleton University) / Observatori Del Sistema Penal els Drets Humans (Universitat de Barcelona)

• Pablo Pinochet, Prison Transparency Project (Carleton University) - Observatori Del Sistema Penal els Drets Humans (Universitat de Barcelona)