Election talks in prison to combat the high abstention of inmates

Entrance to the Penitentiary Center of Mansilla de las Mulas (León), in a file image. J.Casares. (EFE)

General elections on July 23 are also being held for inmates, even if ballot boxes do not enter prisons. The three administrations that manage Spanish prisons – the Ministry of the Interior and the Justice departments of the Catalan and Basque governments – have implemented measures to encourage the participation of inmates, through postal voting, and thus reduce the high percentages of abstention registered so far among prisoners. Among these measures, there are "information sessions" to explain how to do it and clear doubts.

In the general elections of April 2019, the last in which there are statistical data of all Spanish prisons, 5,229 inmates asked to vote by mail, 12.49% of the nearly 42,000 prisoners who then had the right to vote. The prison in which the largest number did so was the Penitentiary Center of Picassent (Valencia), with 1,900 inmates, where there were 255 requests. In those elections, the average participation in Spain stood at 75.75%, six times higher.

Now, the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions has sent a "service instruction" to the directors of the prisons dependent on the Interior to facilitate that prisoners in the second degree or ordinary regime who have Spanish nationality and have not been sentenced in firm to penalties that restrict their right to vote can vote by mail on 23-J. Inmates imprisoned in the third degree or semi-liberty or who go to enjoy exit permits during the weekend of the elections can go to vote directly at the ballot box.

The instruction contains the guidelines set out both by the electoral law and by two agreements of the Central Electoral Board of May 1993 and February 2000. The first stressed that inmates in prisons could exercise the right to vote by mail if they met the required conditions. The second allowed inmates who did not have a DNI to vote with a different identity document if it contained a photograph of them that would allow their identity to be verified, such as the one issued by prisons to inmates.

Interior emphasizes that, with the instruction, it seeks to facilitate "to the maximum the exercise of the right to vote" of all inmates, so it urges the directors of the penitentiary centers to "the information and its understanding reaches all of them with sufficient anticipation". To do this, it reminds them that they must expose "in the places authorized for this purpose and in a way that ensures that the information reaches all interested parties" a copy of the articles of the electoral regime law that regulate voting by mail.

In addition, it urges those responsible for prisons to hold "information sessions in order to clarify to inmates and inmates the circumstances and conditions" to exercise this right, The text also recalls that inmates must have made the application for registration at the polling station before July 13, "tenth day before the vote." Interior orders that, in parallel, the prisons request the Post Office, in application of an agreement of the Council of Ministers last March, the delivery of electoral documentation to the inmates, as well as the collection of their votes in prisons.

Informative talks will also be held in the prisons dependent on the Catalan Generalitat, where the percentage of participation in the elections so far has been even lower than the average. According to sources from the Department of Justice, Rights and Memory, in each electoral consultation the number of prisoners who participate fluctuates between 250 and 300, which represents between 7% and 9% of the inmates with the right to vote. In the last general elections, those of November 2019, 302 inmates did so (8.8% of those who had that right).

In his case, in addition to taking measures so that the inmates "are well informed of the electoral options presented in these elections and can exercise their right to vote," it will facilitate the processing of the postal vote to all inmates who request it without questioning whether or not they meet all the requirements. "In any case it will be the Electoral Board, where appropriate, which will act if there is a problem (lack of nationality, suspension of the right to vote, etc.)," detailed sources of the Government.

In Euskadi, where there are currently 1,623 inmates, in the only elections that have been held under the management of the Basque Government, the municipal elections of May 28, 155 prisoners requested documentation to vote by mail in the three Basque prisons, although one of them finally did not issue it, according to data from the Department of Equality. Justice and Social Policy. In the case of the Basauri prison (Bizkaia), where 25 inmates requested them, the participation rate was 16%, according to official statistical data.

For these elections, those responsible for the Basque prisons will place on the bulletin boards of the modules where the cells are information on the procedures and deadlines for exercising the right to vote, as well as extracts from the electoral law. In addition, the educators will be responsible for resolving any doubts that may arise to the inmates, according to sources from the Basque Department of Justice.

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