Criminal Lawyers in Penitentiary Law

Prison Law is the branch of Spanish law governing the execution of custodial sentences and the relationship between inmates and the Prison Administration. Its backbone consists of the General Penitentiary Organic Law (LOGP 1/1979), the Prison Regulation (RD 190/1996) and Articles 76-94 of the Spanish Criminal Code. The protected legal interest is not merely public safety but, above all, the constitutional mandate of Art. 25.2 of the Spanish Constitution: custodial sentences must be oriented towards re-education and social rehabilitation. Constitutional Court case-law and the Supreme Court have repeatedly stressed that inmates retain every fundamental right not expressly restricted by the judgment, opening a broad field to challenge restrictive decisions by Treatment Boards or the Central Penitentiary Directorate.

Prison classification distinguishes three grades with very different consequences. First grade or closed regime (Arts. 89-95 RP) is reserved for inmates of extreme dangerousness or manifest and serious maladjustment; in its most restrictive form, the special departments, it guarantees at least three hours a day in the yard (Art. 93 RP), and in closed units at least four hours of communal life (Art. 94 RP). Classification is reviewed at least every six months (Art. 105 RP) and can be challenged before the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge (JVP). Second grade or ordinary regime (Art. 74.1 RP) is the standard module life, with work, training and short furloughs. Third grade or open regime (Arts. 80-88 RP) allows semi-liberty, work release and, via telematic monitoring (Art. 86.4 RP), even sleeping at home with an electronic bracelet. Beside them, the flexible regime of Art. 100.2 RP enables individualised programmes combining elements of different grades —a critical tool for long sentences.

Penalties and prison benefits follow a highly technical schedule. Ordinary furloughs (Art. 47 LOGP) require having served a quarter of the sentence, being classified in second or third grade and showing good conduct; the annual cap is thirty-six days in second grade and forty-eight in third grade. Conditional release / parole (Arts. 90-92 CP) requires third-grade classification and three quarters of the sentence served (two thirds with work, cultural or occupational activities; half for a first prison sentence of up to three years, except for sexual offences), together with good conduct, a favourable individualised prognosis and satisfaction of civil liability. Sentence accumulation (Art. 76 CP) sets a maximum cap on prison time —usually three times the longest sentence, with absolute limits of twenty, twenty-five, thirty or forty years depending on the offence— and its correct calculation may save years of effective imprisonment. Sentence suspension (Arts. 80-87 CP), substitution by expulsion (Art. 89 CP for foreign nationals) and parole for septuagenarians or terminally ill inmates (Art. 91 CP) complete the picture.

Penitentiary defence rests on four well-settled axes. First, appeals and complaints before the JVP (Art. 76 LOGP) against decisions on classification, sanctions, denial of furloughs, interception of communications and other decisions affecting the inmate's rights; deadlines are tight. Second, the design of a "prison life plan": evidencing family roots, job offers, participation in training and treatment programmes, instalment payment of civil liability in line with real ability to pay, which is what Art. 72.5 LOGP weighs. Third, the challenge of disciplinary reports and sanctions (Arts. 231-258 RP), which weigh in the assessment of conduct for progressions and furloughs. Fourth, petitions to review sentences after more favourable criminal-law reforms (the case-law triggered by Organic Law 10/2022 on sexual offences is a paradigmatic example).

In current forensic practice we observe a sustained increase in proceedings concerning the "security period" of Art. 36.2 CP in sentences over five years, the conditional release of foreigners with substitutive expulsion, and the use of electronic monitoring in third grade. Under Organic Law 1/2025 on Justice Service Efficiency, decisions of the Prison Supervision Section of the Central Court of Instance are appealed to the Criminal Chamber of the National High Court (additional provision 5.6 LOPJ). At Alonso Sala, our criminal lawyers specialised in Prison Law intervene from the moment of admission to design an individualised strategy, assist before Treatment Boards, appeal adverse decisions and accompany the inmate and family throughout the execution. We treat each file with the rigour demanded by a field where every month of delay equals one further month of effective deprivation of liberty.