Prison staff block access to jails on fresh day of protests 

Catalonia is facing a fresh day of protests at prisons as staff block access to jails and prisoners remain kept in their cells. 

The dispute between workers and the justice department over safety and working conditions was sparked on Wednesday by the killing of a cook at Mas d'Enric prison at the hands of an inmate who later took his own life. 

The Catalan justice minister has not ruled out sanctioning prison staff who do not go to work while the current protests are ongoing. 

On Monday morning, the justice department said that cells were only opened at only two prisons – Quatre Camins and Joves, which are housed on the same site – leaving 5,500 prisoners confined across Catalonia. 

At around 10am, it was confirmed that the 1,400 prisoners at Catalonia's biggest prison, Brians 2, had been allowed to leave their cells, leaving around 4,000 inmates confined. 

Even where prisoners have been allowed out of their cells, there are no workshops or activities as would normally be the case. 

The 4,000 inmates who remain locked in their cells are in Brians 1 (1,034), Wad-Ras (106), Lledoners (802), Mas d'Enric (793), Puig de les Basses (717) and Ponent (625). 

At the women's prison (Wad-Ras), where facilities are very old, inmates were allowed out to shower but then had to return to their cells. 

Entrances blocked

After protests on Friday and Saturday, staff again blocked access to Lledoners, Ponent, Puig de les Basses, Brians 1 and 2, and Mas d'Enric prisons. 

From the early hours of Monday morning, protesters placed tires, in some cases on fire, branches and rocks on the roads to block access to the various sites. 

Catalan police, the Mosso d'Esquadra intervened at the access to Quatre Camins and Joves prisons, forcing one lane to remain open. 

In the women's prison, popularly known as Wad-Ras, staff allowed food to enter and inmates on low prison regimes (known as 'tercer grau' in Catalan) to leave. 

A source from the Catalan interior department said staff who want to access the prisons can do so. 

No meeting

On Sunday, the Catalan government called unions to attend a meeting on Monday morning, proposing new interlocutors, as the protesters had called for the resignation or sacking of the Catalan justice minister and the secretary of penal measures. 

But despite the executive putting other names on the table, unions decided against attending the talks. 

"We don't want these outstretched hands that are stained with blood, stained with Núria's blood, they're of no use. They don't say anything new," a Mas d'Enric prison employee said. 

Killing sparks widespread protest

The woman who was killed on Wednesday died from stab wounds caused by a prisoner, who also worked in the jail's kitchen. 

Sources from the prison workers’ union told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that the prisoner had recently been removed from kitchen duty because of aggression but had been allowed to return. 

Other sources told ACN that the inmate was an authoritarian and that he shouldn’t have been allowed back in the kitchen. 

The inmate was serving an eleven-year sentence, due to end in April 2027, for stabbing a woman to death in 2016.  

Catalan Justice Minister, Gemma Ubasart, went to Mas d'Enric prison on Thursday where a five-minute silence was observed in memory of the victim.

The cook's death led to protests outside the justice depaartment on Thursday, and demonstrations at prisons on Friday and Saturday. 

Blockades were eventually lifted on Saturday, but staff warned they would start again on Monday.

Tensions over prison visits

On Saturday morning, tension escalated when relatives arrived at the Quatre Camins prison to visit the inmates, especially since weekends are when families typically visit their loved ones. 

Although the protesting workers allowed the relatives to enter the facilities, the visits were not guaranteed due to the lack of staff at the facility. 

The director of Quatre Camins appeared to address the situation, but the protesters turned their backs on him and demanded his resignation.