Penitentiary Law Blog
26/03/2026
Reintegration without listening is not reintegration
By Luis Velázquez Crime is often approached from a legal and punitive perspective, focused on punishment and formal rehabilitation. However, practical experience reveals a more complex reality: many crimes originate in untreated psychological and emotional problems.
19/02/2026
Prison labor and human rights: a silent change in the protection of the prison worker
By Valentin AguilarFor the inmate, it is sustenance; employment in prison is meaningful time and a step towards freedom; for the system, for years, it was a space treated with diminished guarantees.
12/02/2026
The secret press of Ventas: when Francoist prisoners turned words into resistance
By Juan Pablo OrtizIn response to the official newspaper Redención, an instrument of control and humiliation, the women in prison organized clandestine handwritten newspapers that denounced abuses, strengthened their political identity, and turned the word into a trench.
05/02/2026
The significant overrepresentation of women in life imprisonment sentences with review
By Patricia Ortiz Ten years after its introduction, the reviewable life sentence reveals a worrying situation: many convicts, despite their vulnerability and family context, face almost perpetual sentences that leave the promise of reintegration empty.
29/01/2026
It cannot be delayed any longer
By Carlos GarcíaThe 2022 reform of the Prison Regulations recognized the key role of digital technology for reintegration, but its application remains limited and unequal, maintaining a digital divide that hinders the true social reintegration of people deprived of their liberty, especially women.
21/01/2026
Penitentiary Law is practiced in a network
By Julia Riveiro The author's first experience at the Penitentiary Law Encounters organized by the Abogacía EspañolaIt left him with a clear certainty: the defense of rights in prison is not built solely from theory, but from shared work.
13/11/2025
The invisible condemnation: suicides in the centros penitenciarios
Despite occasional efforts, high suicide rates and a lack of trained staff and adequate psychological follow-up highlight the need for serious protocols, sufficient healthcare, and constant professional support, even in open regimes.
16/10/2025
Formally legal, humanly cruel
By Domingo TalensIn a penitentiary on the Iberian Peninsula, two thought-provoking tragedies occurred in just a few weeks: the expulsion of a seriously ill inmate and the death of another with terminal cancer. These situations demonstrate the urgent need to balance legality with humanity.
09/10/2025
The carrying capacity of prisons
By Juan Carlos EstévezThe recent "First Congress on the Demographic Challenge of the Canary Islands" revived the debate on the limits of overcrowding in fragile territories like the islands. This reflection also serves to look inward, where overcrowding can turn the loss of freedom into a loss of dignity.
19/09/2025
Lawyers and the Ministry's "988 Calculator"
By Luis Velázquez GonzálezThe 988 calculator is a tool that allows you to enter data such as convictions, dates of events, or sentences to calculate the highest triple. A very useful system that the author requests be made available to legal professionals.
07/08/2025
Art and Life: A Commentary on “The Lives of Sing Sing”
By Juan Pablo Ortiz de Zárate
The author analyzes this film, which depicts a performing arts rehabilitation program at the Sing Sing maximum-security prison in New York State. Inmates are selected to perform theater and dance shows that showcase physical and verbal expression, self-awareness, and sensitivity, revealing how another life is possible even in the most extreme conditions.
30/07/2025
AI in prisons: a risk to fundamental rights or a tool for reintegration?
By Pastor A. Cañas PérezAre lawyers prepared to challenge algorithm-based decisions? Can the system resist the temptation to turn criminal justice into a predictive machine, sacrificing individualized sentencing and respect for fundamental rights?
23/07/2025
Artificial Intelligence in prisons
By Cristina García Aguado Infrastructure modernization, data quality, and human oversight are key elements to ensuring responsible use. AI is already here, but its full integration requires a comprehensive approach that combines technological innovation with institutional commitment and respect for fundamental rights.
In this Blog write, individually, the members of the Penitentiary Subcommission of the Consejo General de la Abogacía Española.
