The Modest ECtHR Supervision of Spain´s Prison System

Abstract

AbstractThe European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has not yet ruled against Spain for breaching Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on account of the material conditions in Spanish prisons. Most of the ECtHR´s case law regarding Spanish prisons and detention conditions refers to the incommunicado detention regime, for which the ECtHR has condemned Spain for breaching the procedural limb of Article 3 of the ECHR and, in its most recent decision on the topic: Portu Juanenea and Sarasola Yarzabal v. Spain of 13 October 2018, also for breaching the material limb of that same provision. Besides the case law regarding the incommunicado detention regime, the ECtHR has ruled on issues related to arrangements for granting adjustments of sentence, which have traditionally been understood to fall outside the scope of the ECHR. In this sense, Del Río Prada v. Spain of 21 October 2013 and Arrozpide Sarasola and Others v. Spain of 23 October 2018 constitute important attempts of re‐examining the concept of penalty for the purpose of extending the guarantees of the Convention. Still, however, altogether considered, the case law of the ECtHR on Spain's prison system and policies is relatively modest if compared with the significant case law issued against other European countries regarding this same topic. The reasons behind the limited ECtHR oversight of Spain's prison system are varied and not straightforward and the present article aims at shedding light on this question, while highlighting the many potential areas where an alignment with some of the criteria set forth by the ECtHR is needed.