Jihadist prisoners in Spain and the application of the high security prison regime

Abstract

The presence in Spanish prisons of individuals linked with jihadist terrorism has alerted the authorities to the risk that these prisoners may pose as agents for radicalization and the establishment of organizational structures inside prisons. To address this risk, Spanish authorities have used similar policies to those applied to prisoners belonging to the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) terrorist group, subjecting jihadist prisoners to a restrictive detention regime. Based on the data obtained from analysis of the judicial proceedings of 264 individuals imprisoned for jihadist acts and information from the questionnaires completed by 60 prison officers in direct contact with those persons, this article considers whether it is appropriate to indiscriminately apply a high security regime to these types of prisoners.