At least seven inmates of the Monterroso Penitentiary (Lugo) have participated in the clandestine recording of two videos inside the prison in which they are seen to consume drugs and presume to have prohibited objects, such as a tattoo artist and the mobile phone with which they capture the images. After the videos were disseminated on social networks, Penitentiary Institutions have opened an internal investigation to determine the possible security flaws that led to the recording, according to sources from the Ministry of the Interior, who have declined to provide more information. Other prison sources add that the prisoners, who in all cases except one appear in the open, have already been identified and punished. In the registry of their cells, the objects they carried in the recording have been located.There are currently about 200 inmates in the Lugo prison.
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These same sources confirm that the images were recorded last week in the so-called “day room” of one of the modules of the Monterroso prison, where the prisoners carry out activities or watch TV under the surveillance of at least one official of prisons.
In the first of the videos, which lasts 3 minutes and 44 seconds, an inmate criticizes, precisely, that at that moment there are no prison workers in the room.
"Charging a thousand-odd
bucks
[euros], they work 48 hours straight and then rest the rest of the week. [...]. Look, there is no God around here, "says the inmate who records the images while showing another inmate sitting at a table" sharpening something "and another making a large tattoo on the back of a third party with a machine, whose possession is prohibited inside the jail. “Tattoos are cheaper [than on the street]. They charge a
piece
of
paper
[dose of heroin] ”, says another of the inmates in the recording.
In the video, the inmate also complains about the alleged lack of occupational workshops for the inmates of his module, something that the consulted prison officials deny. According to this intern, "there is no other way to pass the time", while pointing out what he calls "a poker table, that there is no table or anything, that it is a fucking trash can" and the chairs to see the "shit " of TV. After the entry of two other inmates, whom he describes as "Georgians" and whom he greets with the phrase "honor, health and freedom until death", the recording is over.
The second video, 2 minutes and 46 seconds long, seems to be recording moments later and in it appear up to seven prisoners who appear seated around the table that they have improvised to play cards. Several inmates are the same ones that appeared in the first one. On this occasion, the images show on the table a dozen capsules of drugs initially destined for sick inmates, but which have allegedly been diverted for clandestine trafficking. In the video, the inmates show off their possession and begin to empty its contents into a plastic cup into which they then pour a cola drink. The content is immediately afterwards drunk together. "It's a Molotov cocktail for you to enjoy," says one of the inmates, while others say that "that's how kids die in jail."Several of them stick out their tongues and show other capsules in it.
Prison sources acknowledge that the images reflect serious security failures and alleged surveillance errors. And they highlight that mobile phone terminals, such as the one used to record videos, are one of the most sought-after clandestine objects among prisoners. In 2019, the last year for which official data is available, prison officials intervened 2,672 of these devices inside prisons, seven a day. This figure doubled the number of those requisitioned in 2017, when there were 1,383. Last December, and days after the escape of two inmates from the Madrid prison of Valdemoro, Interior issued instructions to reinforce security measures inside the prisons to prevent, among other things, the inmates from having objects in their possession. prohibited.
The document reminded those responsible for prisons and officials of the need to apply "in the most rigorous and effective way possible" the records, with comprehensive searches, in those inmates suspected of trafficking or consuming drugs each time they hold a communication
vis a vis
(with physical contact between the inmate and his family members) or re-enter after enjoying an exit permit. He also asked to organize the dispensing of medicines to sick prisoners to prevent them from being diverted to traffic inside the prisons. Interior also ordered extreme security in courtyards, dining rooms, television rooms and other common spaces, which must be reviewed by officials before and after inmates arrive.