Types of Penalties in Spain: Prison, Fines & Community Service

There are three main types: custodial penalties (reviewable permanent imprisonment, prison and the permanent location order), fines (calculated under the daily-quota system) and penalties restricting rights (disqualifications, licence withdrawal, firearm bans, restraining orders and Community Service).

Under the daily-quota system: the daily quota is multiplied by the number of days. The number of days depends on the seriousness of the offence (for example, 6 months equals 180 days), and the daily quota depends on the offender's financial means, with a minimum of EUR 2 and a maximum of EUR 400 per day.

Non-payment leads to subsidiary personal liability: one day of custody (prison or the permanent location order) for every two unpaid daily quotas. It is possible to apply to spread the payment to avoid default and subsidiary imprisonment.

It consists of unpaid work for NGOs or local councils, and requires the offender's consent. It is a good alternative to a short prison term or to a fine when there are no funds to pay it.

Ordinary prison ranges from 3 months to 20 years. Reviewable permanent imprisonment is the maximum penalty, reserved for the most serious murders, genocide and similar offences, and is reviewed after 25 years. The permanent location order is home arrest for minor offences.

A proportional fine is not calculated by multiplying a daily quota by a number of days, but as a multiple of the value of the object of the offence, the profit obtained or the harm caused. It is common in drug trafficking, money laundering or corporate offences. The Supreme Court has clarified that, if the court reduces the prison sentence by one degree due to a mitigating factor, that reduction must also apply to the proportional fine, applying the analogy in bonam partem.

Because that classification (Article 33 of the Criminal Code) determines whether the offence itself is serious, less serious or minor (Article 13 of the Criminal Code), which in turn determines the applicable procedure (ordinary proceedings, abbreviated proceedings or trial for minor offences), the limitation periods for the offence and the penalty, and matters such as the possibility of suspending or substituting the sentence.

Yes. It is common for a single judgment to impose a custodial penalty (or a fine) together with penalties restricting rights, such as special disqualification or a restraining order. Accessory penalties may also be imposed that are not expressly set out in the offence itself but that the law attaches to the principal penalty imposed, such as certain disqualifications when the prison term exceeds a given length.