The General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz, inaugurated this morning in Burgos the training course for professionals who will be in charge of the twelve new canine units that are going to be implemented in the prisons of the General Administration of the State. These cinological teams will be added to the eleven already distributed throughout the Spanish geography.
“The creation of the new units is a reinforcement in the strategy designed by the Prison Administration to prevent and avoid the introduction and consumption of drugs in prison; a clear commitment to the duty to ensure the health of people deprived of their liberty,” said Ángel Luis Ortiz.
The penitentiary centers that will have new units are Zaragoza, A Lama (Pontevedra), Castellón II, Ceuta, Las Palmas II, León, Madrid V, Madrid VII, Murcia II, Teixeiro (A Coruña), Topas (Salamanca) and Valencia. These teams will also serve other prisons in the area in which they operate, so that the radius of action extends to much of the geography.
The project began with a pilot experience at the Burgos Penitentiary Center in 2018. Since then, teams of this nature have gradually been set up in ten other prisons: Albolote, Algeciras, Córdoba, Huelva, Madrid III, Málaga I, Málaga II, Mallorca, Puerto III y Sevilla II.
During 2022, the canine units detected almost 60% — 58.87% — of the sum of cannabis, cocaine and heroin used in the ten establishments in which they were operational — the Penitentiary Centre of Mallorca did not have its own equipment until the end of last year.
“Now it is a question of moving forward, reaching more centers in this second phase,” said the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions, after recognizing the work of the professionals of the Penitentiary Center of Burgos and the Local Police who promoted the constitution of the first unit.
Ángel Luis Ortiz, accompanied by the general director of Penitentiary Institutions, Miguel Ángel Vicente, and the director of the Burgos prison, Elena Ramos, also appeared at a press conference with the mayor of the city, Daniel de la Rosa, whom he thanked for the involvement of the City Council in the project by facilitating the facilities for the training of canine guides.
Training in Burgos
The course, which began this Monday and will end in June, aims to qualify 25 prison professionals and train 25 dogs assigned to canine units for the detection of drugs through the lapa labeling system. It will be taught by specialists in this technique from the Local Police of Burgos and other parts of the country and by a cynological expert from the Burgos prison.
In total, there will be 520 teaching hours that include theoretical sessions and practical training in the work centers. In the first phase, 18 professionals were trained to deploy canine units in penitentiary establishments.
The technique of lapa marking is characterized by being non-invasive: the dog limits himself to touching, or marking, the area in which he detects narcotic substances. Some of them have begun to be trained for the marking, in addition, of mobile phones.
The canine units are one of the resources, along with others, such as searches, searches and searches, available to prison workers to neutralize the presence of drugs inside the prison. Its deterrent effect, in addition, on the access points of the establishments means a reinforcement of the awareness campaigns that are periodically promoted and that are aimed at combating the entry and consumption of narcotic drugs in the centres. In this task, the cinological teams of the State Security Forces and Corps will continue to collaborate.