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A delegation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Spain from 28 April to 9 May 2025.
The main purpose of the visit was to examine the treatment of persons held in police and prison establishments as well as the situation of juvenile offenders. To this end, the CPT delegation visited seven prison establishments, one juvenile detention centre and various Civil Guard and National Police establishments in the Madrid and Cádiz regions. The delegation examined in particular the conditions of detention of prisoners accommodated in closed regime modules focusing on the resort to isolation/segregation measures and the application of means of restraint.
The CPT also examined the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by law enforcement agencies, their material conditions of detention and the operation of legal safeguards against police ill-treatment. The visit provided an opportunity to assess the progress made in these areas since the CPT’s latest periodic visit to Spain in 2020.
The delegation held consultations with Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior, Ángel Luis Ortíz Gonzáles, Secretary General for Penitentiary Institutions and Elena Garzón Otamendi, Director General for International Relations and Migration at the Ministry of the Interior as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Health and Youth and Children.
The delegation also met with Ángel Gabilondo, Spanish Ombudsperson, representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) and of the civil society. A separate meeting was also held with senior officials of the General Council of the Judiciary.
The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT: Therese Rytter (Head of the delegation), Gunda Wössner, 2nd Vice-President of the CPT, Vanessa Durich-Moulet, Aleksandar Tomčuk and Tom Daems. They were supported by Mauro Palma, former Head of the National Preventive Mechanism (Italy), Catherine Paulet, psychiatrist, Head of the Regional Medico-Psychological Service at Marseille Prison (France), and Kate Wood, General Practitioner (United Kingdom), as well as by Christian Loda and Monica Martinez of the CPT’s Secretariat.
At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary findings to the competent authorities.
The delegation visited the following establishments:
Police establishments
Civil Guard
- Civil Guard Headquarters, Cadiz
- Civil Guard District Station, Madrid (Las Rozas)
National Police
- Police Station, Cádiz
- Police Station, Huelva
- Police Station, Jerez de la Frontera
- Police Station, Madrid (Centro)
- Central Detention Unit, Madrid (Moratalaz)
- Police Station, Madrid (Tetuán)
- Police Station, Madrid (Puente de Vallecas)
- Police Station, Madrid (Latina)
- Police Station, Madrid (Hortaleza-Barajas)
- Police Station for minors (G.R.U.M.E.), Madrid
- Police Station, Puerto de Santa Maria
- Detention facilities of the Plaza de Castilla Court, Madrid
Penitentiary establishments
- Algeciras Prison
- Huelva Prison
- Madrid V Prison*
- Madrid VII Prison
- Puerto II Prison*
- Puerto III Prison
- Sevilla II Prison
Juvenile establishments
- Juvenile Detention Centre, “Vicente Marcelo Nessi”, Badajoz (Extremadura)
Source, text and photo – the CPT
