Current challenges of the Basque penitentiary system concerning ETA prisoners

• In Event: The Basque prison model: achievements and pending challenges

Abstract

ETA prisoners have been the determining factor that has conditioned the transfer of prisons to the Basque Country, produced only after the definitive cessation of the armed activity of the organization. The transfer has meant the end of the dispersion policy applied by the Government to this group (who had been serving their sentences in prisons far from the Basque Country) and their transfer to the penitentiary centres closest to their places of origin.

Today, these prisoners represent one of the most striking aspects of the Basque penitentiary reality. Although the Prison Administration aims to end any hint of exceptionality to actively promote their reintegration, this is a controversial issue. This is because broad political and social sectors are opposed to an ordinary penitentiary policy concerning those convicted of terrorism, which makes this problem one of the most significant challenges for the Basque authorities in their new attributions over prisons.

Author

• Eneko Etxeberria Bereziartua, University of the Basque Country