the measures taken by Government at penitentiary center of Comella are starting to take effect. Or, at least, this is what emerges from the latest evaluations carried out by the Reasoner of the Citizen, Xavier Cañada, and from the decrease in complaints that has received the institution from 2025.
“Surely many things can be improved, but not in terms of the year 2024”
Some of the decisions taken by the Government from 2024 are the extension ofspaces to enable part of the minors module to serve sentences of night arrest, the activation of shock measures to prevent the escape of personnel and the action plan against teducation generated by protests of the inmates in May 2025 -which included one extension of recreation time and technical improvements in the showerss-.
“They were small changes, but the sum of these have caused complaints to drop very significantly”, he says canadawho regularly visits the facilities. In fact, the situation has improved significantly in just one year, since in the 2024 report the reasoner warned of serious deficiencies such as the prolonged isolation of inmates, the high use of psychotropic drugs or the lack of reintegration. “Surely many things can be improved, but not those terms of 2024“, he points out.
“The law is a mechanism that guarantees rights. The balance between safety and health must be found”
But the most outstanding is the bill to amend several rules in the penitentiary and penal field which has been definitively approved this July. The initiative contemplates the reduction of provisional prison termsthe flexibility of the mechanisms to access permits or methods of opening abroad, the restructuring of penalties at the center so that they are more proportional, the reduction of the penalty of a maximum of 3 days per month for participating in rehabilitation programs and workshopsand the separation of the interns in different modules for therapeutic or safety reasons. Consideration should also be given to the acquisition of a plot of land in the vicinity of the center to build a separate building for a mental health module and new outbuildings.
The other measure that incorporated the law is that prisoners could be forced into forced medical treatments. About this item, canada considers that “it is a guarantor for both the prisoners and the different professionals”. However, the initiative has not been without parliamentary controversy
For example, concord proposed limiting mandatory assistance in cases where the will of the person cannot be known or there is a risk to life, health or third parties. In this sense, however, the reasoner maintains that the law “is a good mechanism that guarantees rights. Proportionality and balance must be found between security, health and risk for third parties”, he says canadawhich receives that “unfortunately there are cases, action must be taken”.
