Prisoners in the community: the open prison model in Catalonia

Abstract

Abstract
Open prisons are low-security penitentiary institutions in which life conditions are less strict than in closed prisons, and where prisoners have more contact with the outside world. Despite sharing important features, some variations can be found in the model of open prisons in different countries. This article describes the Catalan open prison model, characterized by the fact that prisoners serve the sentence in full semi-liberty; that is, by day they work and spend time with their families or doing other activities, but return to prison to sleep. As a contribution to the comparative study of open prisons, I describe here how Catalan open prisons are run and discuss the concept of ‘openness’ with reference, above all, to the open prisons that exist in Scandinavian countries. This work shows that the degree of openness of open prisons varies considerably between different countries – therefore approaching community penalties or closed prisons in a greater or lesser extent – and suggests that the role that open prisons are granted in each penal system is part of the explanation.1

1)Marta Martí holds a PhD in Law (Criminology). Currently, she is working as an external consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross in El Salvador and she is member of the Research Group in Criminology and Criminal Justice System of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain). This article is based on her PhD dissertation, ‘One foot in and one foot out: serving a prison sentence in an open prison’, which was accepted in November 2018 in Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain). The full version of the dissertation (in Spanish) can be found on the following link: https://repositori.upf.edu/handle/10230/36320. This article is part of the project ‘Ejecución y supervisión de la pena: calidad de la intervención, legitimidad y reincidencia’ (DER2015-64403-P), funded by the Spanish Government.

Abstract
Åbne fængsler har et lavere control-niveau end lukkede fængsler og indsatte i åbne fængsler har mere kontakt til verden uden for fængslet. Trods mange ligheder findes der også en del forskelle imellem åbne fængsler i forskellige lande. I denneartikel præsenteres åbne fængsler i Catalonien. Disse er kendetegnet ved at de indsatte rent faktisk nyder delvis frihed. Det indebærer, at de i dagtimerne går på arbejde uden for fængslet eller tilbringer tid sammen med deres familie eller er beskæftiget på anden måde i lokalområdet. Om aftenen vender de tilbage til fængslet og tilbringer natten dér. I artiklen sammenlignes de catalanske åbne fængsler med åbne fængsler i Skandinavien. Sammenligningen viser, at der er store forskelle i graden af åbenhed i åbne fængsler, nogle steder ligger de tættere på samfunds-straffe og andre steder langt tættere på lukkede fængsler. Der argumenteres for, at en del af forklaringen her på er, hvilken rolle i det samlede nationale straffesystem de åbne fængsler har i forskellige lande.