Portugal will have 36% fewer prison guards by the end of this year, not enough for the current prison population, unions worried about the risks of escapes, kidnappings or violence in the institutions warned on Tuesday.
At a joint press conference by unions representing prison managers and guards, union structures warned of staff shortages, asked for travel allowances similar to those attributed to judicial police and warned of the risk of a “tragedy” in Portuguese prisons.
According to Carlos Souza of the National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP), the staff designed for a prison population of 10,000, three thousand less than the current prison population, is 4,977, and there are only 3,885 guards on active duty. This figure will be reduced by seven hundred less due to reforms planned by the end of the year.
“The various authorities have not taken care to strengthen the personnel map or even supplement it,” said Carlos Sousa, recalling that Portugal has been condemned by international bodies for the lack of prison conditions.
In this sense, he warned, “the conditions of detention of some are the working conditions of others, in this case the working conditions of prison guards.”
Consequently, “if something serious happens in Portuguese prisons, it will not be the fault of the prison guards, but the fault of those who did not engage in public affairs, strengthening prison guards and caring for the facilities.”
“We have prisons in mainland Portugal and also in the Azores and Madeira that work at night with two, three guards,” compared to “one hundred, two hundred, three hundred prisoners,” he added, stressing that “the prison system is in chaos.” , there is something” and “all the authorities involved in the Ministry of Justice are complicit in how this happened, some by actions, others by inaction.”
For his part, Herminio Barradas from the Union of Chiefs of Prison Guards (ASCCGP) recalled that in 2017 the Ministry of Justice approved and published a 10-year multi-year plan, “an investment path that was decided”, but it was never implemented by politicians. “skillful and wasteful in inaugurations and pompous presentations of pilot projects, selectively forgetting to present the results.”
Government officials have created a “narrative of prison stability, they have consciously and deliberately politicized” the sector, and currently “they have no solutions and are headed for tragedy, collapse and chaos,” Herminio Barradas warned.
According to the official, “What is left of the prison guard will be present and firm or not, doing the best it can with the dismal resources the government is allocating to it, without guaranteeing results, much less efficiency and effectiveness.”
Today, prison institutions operate “at a constant minimum of services, only with the abusive use of off-duty guards and overtime work,” the director emphasized.
Union leaders believe the travel allowance would be what oversight should provide to prison guards who have “the dangerous mission of being in constant contact with a belligerent, largely militant target population,” Carlos Souza said.
As an example, Herminio Barradas recalled that last year five times more bladed weapons were seized in prisons than two years ago, indicating “insufficient supervision” and the presence of cases of “coercion and extortion” among detainees.
Moreover, there is a “completely different organizational potential of prisoners.”
SNCGP leader Frederico Morais also warned about the number of attacks on security guards (63 in 2022, 20 in 2023 and ten so far in 2024).
“Attacks on prison guards have become commonplace” with “inaction on the part of prison authorities” who then fail to take action on these cases, a trend that has led to the precarious release of a prisoner charged with assault.
In this case, he explained, “the sentencing court was deceived by the prison services into allowing the release of a prisoner in difficult conditions, in respect of whom the prison case had not yet been completed.”
Trade union leaders are allowing other forms of struggle if the new government does not heed these demands, namely the use of strikes.
After March 10, “a reasonable, fairly short period will be given, since all political parties in the so-called arc of governance know our problems well and they do not need much time to change portfolios,” explained Carlos Souza.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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