Portuguese jails are becoming overcrowded and filled with young inmates, while there are fewer and older guards, warned the National Union of Prison Guards at a recent demonstration.
“Safety, order and balance in the prison system are becoming more and more jeopardised,” said the president of the union, Jorge Alves, before stressing that the numbers of prisoners in the national jails are rising and that there are currently more than 14,000 inmates.
In contrast, prison guards are “becoming older and fewer for increasingly younger prisoners, which demands greater physical effort” and creates more difficulty in “guaranteeing efficiency in the security system”.
He explained the importance of the prison guards receiving a new professional status, and without this recognition document he believes guards are subject to “career stagnation”.
In light of this, prison guards have been protesting vehemently to draw the Ministry of Justice’s attention to the fact that the promised deadline for the new document of March 2013 was not honoured.
On a closing note, Alves said the prison guards are “willing to do what it takes” if the government does not present a document with the points already discussed with the Ministry of Justice.
