The Audiencia Nacional decided to fix the trial against the comrades Francisco and Mónica for 8, 9 and 10 March 2016. We’ll have more information soon.
Distances separate us, feeling unite us …
Freedom for the imprisoned anarchists! [And for all! French translator]
About the “maximun respect modules” in force in Spanish prisons
The means of control inside and outside the prisons are becoming ever more subtle and effective. Why install video surveillance cameras, why hire more prison screws and cops, if so many do the job for free? Enjoying a strong sense of citizenship, they are there to maintain the existing order, they are everywhere: the possible informer might be your neighbour or someone in the next cell.
One of the means of control in jails, respect modules (m-R), were launched as an experiment in León prison, then spread to the vast majority of Spanish prisons.
The basic idea of these modules is that the prisoners participate in the management and maintenance of the place, activities, etc. themselves, to create a feeling of independence and of belonging to the space. Ideally, it aims to ensure that all detainees generate dynamics and forms of coercion against themselves and others. Apart from rewarding good behaviour prison screws are not supposed to intervene in this arrangement except in extreme or exceptional cases.
The former director of the Prison Administration, Mercedes Gallizo, alluded to such modules as follows: “The mere fact of reaching a life in common, standardised with basic rules accepted by all, is a fundamental change for many people. This helps them lose their fear of prison and their fellow prisoners. This is a first step to reducing their hostility towards fear [and by the way towards the Institution], transforming this fear, this lack of confidence and aggressiveness, into normality and cooperation.”
The exercise of authority is therefore supported in the first place by the prisoners themselves, in “mutual agreement” concerning the bases to standardize and cooperate on. It is the prison institution itself that fixes and stimulates the creation of roles and behaviours with subtle methods and / or on the basis of blackmail.
That many are afraid on entering prison cannot be denied, but the m-R benefit from this and feed off it. For example it is implicit that if you don’t respect the standards of m-R we’ll put you in a normal module, and that can sometimes be a very effective threat.
These modules have different types of stimuli and / or rewards, ranging from favourable reports up to extra visiting hours (intimate or family), with on the other end of the scales more ways to punish non-compliance with norms.
Entering this type of module is supposed to be done on a voluntary basis. When you arrive, you pledge by signing a kind of contract stipulating in particular that you will adopt good behaviour, that you will respect the rules and that you will solve problems through the pre-established channels. So any day in an m-R starts with a meeting headed by a member of the technical team (educator, social worker and psychologist). All prisoners must attend, and sometimes a prison screw participates. The meeting serves to solve everyday problems, this is the perfect time for assessment and the technical team delivers a pathetic discourse on social rehabilitation.
Some of the unit’s tasks are programmed activities or cleaning. The first are managed by prisoners who oblige you to attend, for the second (cleaning) prisoners are divided into small groups led by an accredited-prisoner, and it is this referent that directs the work done and in some cases acts as spokesperson.
Another important cog in the operation of such modules, is the prisoner mediators who must intervene in conflicts or fights between inmates to resolve them or, if they don’t succeed, alert the prison screws.
As you would expect, these practices result in loss of the ability to solve problems yourself. In jail, you have a mediator or a screw, just as in the streets there are cops and judges.
Mónica Caballero,
from the prison of Villabona
[Received by email, translated correspondence with the comrade]
To write to them :
Mónica Caballero Sepúlveda
Francisco Solar Domínguez
C.P Villabona-Asturias
Finca Tabladiello s/n
33422 Villabona-Llanera
(Asturias)
Spain
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