Christmas in prison

It’s Christmas Day and the nine political prisoners are still in prison. And, whatever the fake news circulating on social media says, they aren’t receiving any special treatment. For activists Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, and for the former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras and the former interior minister Joaquim Forn, this will be the second Christmas spent in custody. In 2017 they spent Christmas at Estremera prison, just outside Madrid, and now they are at Lledoners, in Sant Joan de Vilatorrada. Carme Forcadell, the former speaker of the Catalan parliament, is to spend her first Christmas behind bars at Mas d’Enric; so too is the Catalan minister for employment, social affairs and family, Dolors Bassa (at Puig de les Basses), and the ex-ministers Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Raül Romeva, who have been in module 2 at Lledoners since the four politicians on hunger strike returned to Lledoners last night after five days at Terrassa hospital.

This December 8,404 people are in prison, of whom 1,394 are in preventive custody, that is to say, awaiting trial, like the political prisoners. Over Christmas more people ask for (and obtain) temporary release, but only prisoners who have already completed a quarter of their sentence, who have good behaviour, and who have assumed responsibility for civil liability are eligible.

Being incarcerated can be dehumanizing, and is particularly hard to bear over Christmas. Catalan political prisoners will also be seeing in the new year behind bars. They deny the serious accusations of rebellion laid against them having never opted for violence, however, it doesn’t seem likely that they will be acquitted by the current supreme court.