Vigil comes on very day PJ police announce arrest of one of escapees
Guards from various prisons across the country are expected today at a prison guard vigil in front of Alcoentre’s Vale de Judeus Prison (EP), where five inmates escaped exactly one month ago.
According to the National Union of the Prison Guard Corps (SNCGP), chaired by Frederico Morais, the initiative “aims to demonstrate the unity and support of the prison guard corps for their colleagues at Vale de Judeus prison” and, in this way, “show that there are problems that affect all prisons and the lives of all” these professionals.
“It is essential that we show our solidarity with our colleagues at Vale de Judeus EP (the Portuguese initials for ‘prison establishment’),” says a statement from the SNCGP, at a time when internal disciplinary investigation procedures are underway, as well as an investigation opened by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to find out who was meant to be responsible for video surveillance on the day of the escape.
The vigil (dubbed solidarity meeting), was originally scheduled for September 19 but postponed due to forest fires that hit the country that day.
The escape of five prisoners considered dangerous from Vale de Judeus led to the resignation/ dismissal of the then director-general of Reinsertion and Prison Services, Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves, who was replaced on an interim basis by Isabel Leitão, who was already part of the directorate-general under the Ministry of Justice.
The escape from Vale de Judeus led to Justice minister Rita Alarcão Júdice – who ordered an audit of the security of Portuguese prisons – to be heard by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, at the request of the Liberal Initiative.
The episode has done nothing to elevate the perception of management of Portuguese prisons, or indeed the perception of the country, particularly as prison guards were very quick to blame it on decades of neglect by successive governments.
But today some of the ‘loss of face’ has been recovered with the arrest of one of the escapees in Tangier, Morocco.
Source material: LUSA
