Prison Treatment: Definition, Principles, and Judicial Oversight

1. Concept and Limits of Prison Treatment

Prison treatment is defined using various terms: rehabilitation, resocialization, and even the rehabilitation of the prisoner. It is a neutral concept as it must respect the right to be different and does not require the assimilation of specific values, but simply the ability to live according to criminal law (s. 02.09 LOGP).

Prison treatment is defined in Article 59 of the LOGP as the set of activities directly aimed at achieving the rehabilitation and social reintegration of prisoners.

The only limits are that the inmate's constitutional rights are not affected by the conviction and that the dignity of the inmate is respected.

Principles of Treatment (Article 62 LOGP)

Treatment should adhere to the following principles:

• Based on the scientific study of personality.
• Individualized.
• Complex or multidisciplinary.
• Scheduled.
• Flexible.
• Dynamic.
• Voluntary. The inmate may refuse any technical study of their personality.
• Promoting the participation of the family.
• Neutral treatment.

The Judge of Prison Supervision (JVP)

Historical and Legislative Background. Powers in Our Legal System: Positive and Negative. Hybrid Nature. Remedies Against Their Decisions. Organic and Procedural Matters.

In attempting to define the JVP, we can point out some positive characteristics—what they are—and negative characteristics—what they are not.

Positive Characteristics:

• They have a judicial nature. That is, the JVP is not a hybrid body, much less administrative, but part of the judicial function. It is performed as an emanation of State sovereignty and must provide justice.
• This jurisdiction is protective, or guarantor; it has as one of its essential tasks, but not unique, the protection and enforcement of the fundamental and ordinary rights of inmates in prisons.
• It is also permanent, lasting for the duration of the prison legal relationship so that not a single moment in the life of an inmate in prison may be outside the subject of a court's protective action.
• Its competence is unique and exclusive; it cannot be delegated by the Sentencing Court.

Negative Characteristics:

• It is not a prison superdirector; it cannot interfere in the management of the Centers or chair prison committees or bodies.
• It cannot evacuate queries asked by the Prison Service, in the sense that it is not a body for consultation or advice. A different matter is that, for specific problems, the Center will present its opinion to the JVP, but, obviously, such a criterion is not binding until an order is issued.
• It is an internal Ombudsman.