We spoke with long-term Catalan prison militant Patricio, who has spent almost 2 decades in prison. We asked him about what it had been like to take part in the resistance movement, and also other questions meant to understand what he thought about prison life, the screws, and more..
Barcelona, November 2006.
So my name is Patricio Pallares Bayona. It's more or less 5 or 6 months since I came out of prison- extermination centres- because prisons are extermination centres. I stayed quite a long time, more or less 17 years since 1987. I became a prisoner for social delinquency, because life in that period was harsh, that was the circumstances; so when i fell into imprisonment, so inside the prison, that is where my struggle began. I was 17 and I wasn't politically conscious or anything, so I got all my consciousness I got in prison.
- What kind of struggles did you participate in, in prison?
Struggle inside the prison are normally struggles in solidarity with other prisoners. They are based on hunger strikes, on lock-ins, refusing to work and of course mutinies.
- Can you talk to me about the group 'Presos en Lucha' and how you participated?
So the group 'Presos en Lucha' began because there was lots of discontent against the new penal code. The penal code of '96. There was lots of discontent, because a large portion of prisoners believed that they would be released because of this reform. In reality they would have been released, but what happen was the State also paralysed the law of 18/21*. Because of this not many people were released. We were about 4-5 prisoners that were ready for the struggle, and against the prison system. We believed that we could take advantage of this general discontent. Also when the group 'Presos en Lucha' began I was in Llerida, and participated in the Committee for Prisoner Mutual Support. The truth is that it didn't last for a long time, because after a short time they divided us, applied what is called 'dispersion'.
- For how long did this experience last?
For what concerns 'Presos en Lucha' a couple of years. For example there was also Amedeu Caselles, a political prisoner. He was in for armed robbery but he was there for political reasons, he was an anarchist. Thanks to him the whole question was pushed forward a lot. He arrived there in Ponent, and he was also in the group. So the anarchist ideology came a little bit because he talked to us about it, but in prison ideology doesn't exist. For example some-one could be a fascist, because in prison everyone is in the same boat, and so these kind of stories can't exist, we all have to follow the same line. So what he tried to do was politicise a little bit and plant ideas of anarchy, and what was experienced went on for a couple of years. It is practically impossible to organise a movement inside prison because they catch you quickly, you're simply very controlled. Imagine just today how controlled the streets are, well just imagine, it's like small communities but very well controlled. It's very hard to carry on with these kind of things because they disperse you and very rapidly get rid of you, and when the situation is very bad the authorities never have any doubts about getting you out of the way. If they need to get you out of the way, they just get you out of the way.
- Within this experience, how did you establish the necessity of a parallel struggle from outside, and how did this parallel struggle evolve or develop?
The struggle outside is previous to the struggle inside, inside there has always been people struggling, when I was in prison there was lots of people who struggled and resisted but never with the support from outside. This time what happened that the things co-incided, and there was lots of people with contacts outside. So at the base of this, we tried to develop a collaboration and what also helped a lot was bulletins, what happens was the bulletins came into the prison, but when the screws realised they quickly cut this off. The newsletters also helped a lot, so they were the point of union between us and outside. Prisoners what they need is people outside that support a bit, for example if there is this, there will always some-one inside that feels the strenght to rebel, without support outside, no, because you feel isolated on your own, and its very hard to do anything
- What kind of repercussions did you have inside the prison, following up what was going on outside?
More than anything, when the struggle began there were some contacts. What happened was that they related the contacts to specific prisoners, so whatever action happened outside, they related you to that specific group which did an action. So what they did to me was that they made me do my entire sentence without parole, or any kind of benefit, and they applied the anti-terrorist conditions. They classified me as an active member of anti-system groups. Ok, at the root of this, we were isolated, separated. So all the people who were rebellious were put in specific modules with other prisoners who were there to control you. You feel like an animal in a cage, with some-one always looking at you, only here we are in prison. So when I rebelled it was beatings, locked in and isolated in my cell. Before coming out now, I had to protest by getting on the roof in Llieda, because there the situation was getting too harsh. I thought I would never get out, so what I did was get on the roof and they put me in first-degree, and then in the Modelo. So the rebellion alway exists, but what you can't do is sit there and look around, and just be a spectator. Rebellion is an everyday thing inside prison, it is everyday life, people outside don't need to look after the people inside, we can look after ourselves.
- And in these years you spent in prison, how did you see the prison system change, how did you experience this change and can you tell me what is prison in reality and what is life in prison, how are the relationships between prisoners, between screws, between prisoners and screws?
The reason why the prison system changes is because of changes of governments, for when the competance passes to the Generalitat, the local government. They established a new project and this project was a long term project and within it they introduced permits,and the law of redemption and so forth. Why? well, because before the prisoners were the owners of the prison and they wanted to change this. They introduced the "mini reform" around 1982, and with this they gave special redemption or permits to people that worked inside the prison. If you refused to work you didn't get any vis-a-vis (face to face visits), any permits, any conditional liberty. So for example if you had a 30 year sentence, if you did all they wanted and with conditional liberty you would end up serving a maximum of five years...
- And what kind of repercussion did the introduction of all these new reforms, this more permissive system have on the struggle inside prison, on the prisoners themselves, on the relation among prisoners?...
The stuggle inside prison began back then because people wanted to leave the prison, so what happens the system that was introduced basically gave you the keys in your hands and what do people do? They go for the easiest solution. This put off a lot of the people (from resisting). People began to work, they began to attend work-shops, the "productive workshops". When they were introduced it was a passport to the street. So people began to see that with working you got all sorts of benefits, also there is a lot of poverty so if there is a way of helping the family in the street by earning some money... So what happened is that the struggle inside prison was hindered and pretty much stopped, it was definitely stopped. They began to apply what is known as F.I.E.S (isolation units)... And now it's the screws that own the prison. Really of prisoners in struggle, if there is a fourth of the prison population (that resists) then all the rest of the other three fourths are there to control this one fourth of struggling prisoners. Prison is the punishment of society, but a bad image of punishment cannot be given in the face of the general population, so you have this image of a welcoming place which focuses on rehabilitation, but in reality prison doesn't rehabilitate anything. The problem is not the bad people, it's the fault of the system in the streets, that's why people are forced to steal or whatever....
- And to understand a bit more how prisons here in Catalunya work, can you explain how the "grupo de tratamiento" works , how the resocialisation program works, and what role do drugs have in prisons?
There is a lot of drugs, and they are against prisoners. It is the very screws that sell drugs, and when it's not them anyway, they allow it. There is this kind of permissivity because it pacifies people, it is not the same to keep a prisoner whose only daily worry is to find something to shoot up with, than to deal with a prisoner whose only worry is to leave and is up for anything. The truth is that drugs have done a lot of damage and still do. For example they distribute a lot of psychotropic drugs which are part of the treatment you are forced into, and if you refuse what happens is that you don't get any benefits, no permits and so on, so people are kept on a diet of methadone, psychotropics and all this shit. Also they started distributing syringes, but this resulted in a problem considering that there are lots of illnessess in prison and people started using syringes as a weapon.
- So did the circulation of drugs change since the 80's, what kind of impact and what kind of changes occured in this time?
What changed is only on the face of society, but in reality, drugs keep on circulating and the situation is pretty much the same inside, they did lots of TV programs showing how they are trying to make an effort to stop drugs in prison, but in reality it is just in the face of society they do this, inside things remain the same.
- Before we were talking about the movement outside prison, when you were released what impressions did you have of what is going on outside... Was it as you imagined, were you deceived?
No, I imagined that at least things were more organised, that there was more unity amongst people, the reality is that I am fed up to go to meetings where there is nothing more than never-ending discussions and you leave with nothing in your hand more confused than before. You realise you just went there to discuss, that there is never an agreement between people, an agreement that gives you the will to continue and go on. Everything seems to be in a phase of stasis, the truth is also that there has been a lot of repression in the streets lately, but I thought that people could find solutions, and I don't know, everything seems to be a bit static, not moving...
- A bit of disillusionment let's say...
Yes, disillusionment especially, because when you are released from first degree and you leave your people behind, they are your comrades that have participated in mutinies with you, or many of them find themselves in prison for having supported you from outside during the struggles, so when you go out and they see themselves left locked in, they tell you, "well see what you can do, now you are out there..." For example the people of Valencia that participated in the sruggle, well they went in for a couple of light things and eventually found themselves with heavy sentences, I would be ashamed of seeing them again or going again in prison and seeing them there. I am not saying that people outside don't do anything, I am just saying that there is a lack of co-odination and organisation between the different groups, it is about time we get our act together.
- For you what is solidarity?
Solidarity is arriving to comrades when they need you...
- And at the level of the anti-prison struggle today how do you see the role of solidarity unfolding?
The anti-prison struggle- I wouldn't see it as ‘solidarity’. ‘Solidarity’ I see as part of the anarchist ideology, but with prisoners there is no need of solidarity. Why? because people inside are on their own, it is them that have to struggle for their freedom. Us that are out in the streets, and I include myself there, we have to struggle against the prison as a system, I don't struggle for the people inside. I left my comrades behind and all, of course I help them, but that is normal, I don't see that as solidarity. But the anti-prison struggle doesn't boil down to solidarity, it is a struggle against the system.
- So how do you see the anti-prison struggle, how do you feel you contribute to it...
The problem is that within the anti-prison struggle people are very reactionary and that is a problem when something happens, they respond, it should be a constant struggle. We should not wait for something to happen to fight back.
Another thing is giving people inside the will to continue, animate them, by writing, sending fanzines inside and finding new ways of sending information and material inside...
- When you were released, and when you came into contact with the prison society outside, how did you relate it to the prison itself, how would you compare it?
In reality I feel a prisoner now as well, you don't have screws but you have police, you are always controlled, there are cameras everywhere: everything is very much controlled, I don't feel free being outside, to go where i want to do what i want, the only thing perhaps that changes is that you don't get constantly beaten up as you do inside....
- This depends...
The point is that i feel like a prisoner anyway. The world has became very small, too small, fuck when I first entered prison, mobile phones didn't even exist, there is no space, there are too many people...
- Do you want to add anything?
No, not really, I just want comrades to get more animated and organise themselves better...
- Before we were talking about solidarity... what do you think about international solidarity?
I think it is a good thing but I can't give an opinion on it because I have not had the possibility to experience and understand what it actually means. It is not long I have been in the street, so I'd rather wait before giving an opinion...
- End
*Which means that the law which declared people adults at 21 was lowered to 18, but this law was suspended for the prisoners, meaning that those 18-21 were held in adult conditions and were not released.