The president of the National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP) warned this Sunday that Portuguese prisons need around 1,500 more staff. According to him, a lack of human resources constitutes the biggest problem in the prison system.
While speaking to the media, Frederico Morais said that for a prison population of almost 13,000 inmates, there are around 4,000 prison guards on active duty. However, the ideal would be around 5,500.
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There is a shortage of approximately 1,500 guards in Portuguese prisons, warned the union leader. He highlighted the need to have new guards working as quickly as possible. Furthermore, he believes that this can be solved through a competition for 500 vacancies.
Security Lapses Due to Portuguese Prison Guard Shortage
The president of the SNCGP attributed Saturday’s escape of five inmates from the high-security Vale dos Judeus prison in Alcoentre to a shortage of prison guards. This lack of personnel led to the deactivation and eventual demolition of surveillance towers, compromising security.
Frederico Morais noted that while video surveillance cameras can be useful, they are not adequate for situations like this one. He said that.
The lack of guards led to the deactivation of some surveillance towers that used to exist and where there was always a guard on duty every day.
The union leader also assured that, at the time of the prisoners’ escape, 31 prison guards were on duty in Vale dos Judeus. However, according to the director general of prison services, there were 33.
When under the previous shift system there would have been 50. The SNCGP president lamented:
In 2018, in the previous scale, there were 50 guards there. We went from 50 to 30. The service is the same, the prisoners are the same, everything is the same.
He went on to say that.
It was a mistake that there was no guard in the yard, who would have been in control before, and now there is no guard because there are no guards.
Call for System Reform
Frederico Morais also stressed that he hopes that this case of the escape of prisoners will constitute the D-Day for prison services. He mentioned that this would finally allow a complete turnaround in the Portuguese prison system. Morais added.
At this moment, we need to change almost everything, or even everything. It is important to have the courage to change, to do much more and provide working conditions for the prison guards.
He also acknowledged that the Minister of Justice had recently taken on the role and could not have done much more. However, he pointed out that the competition for prison guards, which is already two months overdue, should have been initiated by now.
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Furthermore, Frederico Morais highlighted that it was important to publicly address the prison guards for the professionalism with which they still manage to keep that prison functioning.
The escape of five inmates from Vale de Judeus Prison was captured by video surveillance at 9:56 a.m. on Saturday. However, it wasn’t detected until 40 minutes later when the prisoners returned to their cells.
