| Barcelona Men's Penitentiary Center | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Alternative names | La Modelo, La Model |
| General information | |
| Location | Barcelona |
| Address | Carrer d'Entença, 155 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Josep Domènech i Estapà, Salvador Vinyals i Sabaté |
The Barcelona Men's Penitentiary Center, more widely known as la Model or la Modelo, is a former penitentiary center located in Barcelona, that was used as a prison until 2017. [1] It currently serves as a memorial space, open to the public for visits. [2]
The building was constructed between 1881 and 1904 under the supervision of the architects Josep Domènech i Estapà and Salvador Vinyals i Sabaté , and based on the panopticon "model" prison design proposed in 1787 by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham. [3]
La Model was inaugurated on 9 June 1904, with its original name being Cellular Prison, but it was informally given the name Model because it was to serve as a model for the new penitentiary reform undertaken in those years; Over time the name became official. [4]
Each of the prison's 6 corridors was used for a different "category" of prisoners: the 1st for primary inmates; the 2nd for inmates with good behavior; the 3rd for second offenders with adapted behavior; the 4th for second offenders with adaptation difficulties; the 5th for primary inmates and prisoners who worked in the prison; and the 6th for prisoners in solitary confinement. [4]
The motto of its board was In severitate humanitas (Humanity in severity) and revealed a new penitentiary conception according to which punishment was no longer conceived as revenge or intimidation and became, increasingly, a mechanism for social reintegration.
Besides common prisoners, it was an incarceration center for political dissidents, especially during the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and of Franco. It was also used to imprison participants in strikes and protest movements such as the Tragic Week (1909), the Canadenca Strike (1919) or the Barcelona Tram Strike (1951) or of political movements such as the Assembly of Catalonia. Famous political prisoners housed there include Francesc Ferrer, Lluís Companys, Salvador Seguí and Helios Gómez. La model was also the place of the execution with garrote vil of Salvador Puig Antich in 1974. During the francoist dictatorship, when it became a symbol of repression, it was also a place of incarceration of homosexuals. [5] The prominent transgender activist Silvia Reyes (1949–2024) was imprisoned here for being a "transvestite" (the then-current term for a trans woman) in 1974 before being trasferred to Carabanchel Prison in Madrid. [6]
Throughout its 113 years of history as a prison it was empty on two occasions, at the beginning and at the end of the Spanish Civil War. The first time was on 19 July 1936, when anarchists liberated the 851 prisoners. On 23 January 1939, some hundreds of prisoners were taken to the borders with France by Servicio de Información Militar, some of them being executed and others freed. Three days later, hours before the entrance of fascist troops into the city, all of the remaining prisoners were liberated, including both members of the nationalist faction and militants of the CNT and the POUM. [4]
In 1984 the prison became famous after an inmates' riot and the escape of the well-known criminal Juan José Moreno Cuenca . [7]
The penitentiary center closed permanently on 8 June 2017, and is currently used as a center of memory, open to the public for guided or unguided visits.
The 2022 film Prison 77, depicting a 1977 revolt of prisoners of la Model, was filmed mostly in the actual site of the old prison. [8]
The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Fairmount section of the city, and was operational from 1829 until 1971. The penitentiary refined the revolutionary system of separate incarceration, first pioneered at the Walnut Street Jail, which emphasized principles of reform rather than punishment.
A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.
Salvador Puig Antich was a Spanish militant anarchist from Catalonia. His execution for involvement in a bank robbery and shooting a police officer dead became a cause célèbre in Francoist Spain for Catalan autonomists, pro-independence supporters, and anarchists. After fighting the Spanish state with the militant organization Iberian Liberation Movement in the early 1970s, he was convicted and executed by garrote for the death of a police officer during a shoot-out.
Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), also known as Oregon State Prison, is a maximum security prison in the northwest United States in Salem, Oregon. Originally opened in Portland 173 years ago in 1851, it relocated to Salem fifteen years later. The 2,242-capacity prison is the oldest in the state; the all-male facility is operated by the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC). OSP contains an intensive management wing, which is being transformed into a psychiatric facility for mentally ill prisoners throughout Oregon.
Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The facility was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado in the tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020.
The Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación was a Catalan left-wing political and urban guerrilla organisation between 1971 and 1973, based mainly in Barcelona, Spain, and in Toulouse, France. It became famous after its dissolving because of the execution by the Francoist State of one of its members, Salvador Puig Antich, in March 1974, and of the shooting of Oriol Solé Sugranyes during his escape in 1976. One of its French members, Jean-Marc Rouillan, later became a member of the GARI and then of the terrorist group Action Directe.
The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland", is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) from downtown Eddyville. It is managed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Completed in 1886, it is Kentucky's oldest prison facility and the only commonwealth-owned facility with supermax units. The penitentiary houses Kentucky's male death row inmates and the commonwealth's execution facility. As of 2015, it had approximately 350 staff members and an annual operating budget of $20 million. In most cases, inmates are not sent directly to the penitentiary after sentencing but are sent there because of violent or disruptive behavior committed in other less secure correctional facilities in the commonwealth. This was Kentucky's second penitentiary: the first was made uninhabitable by a flood in 1937.
Josep Domènech i Estapà was a Catalan architect.
The United States Penitentiary, Hazelton is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in West Virginia. The high-security facility has earned the nickname "Misery Mountain" by the inmates who are incarcerated there. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility has a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The secretary, who is appointed by the governor of Louisiana, serves as the department's chief executive officer. The Corrections Services deputy secretary, undersecretary, and assistant secretaries for the Office of Adult Services and the Office of Youth Development report directly to the secretary. Headquarters administration consists of centralized divisions that support the management and operations of the adult and juvenile institutions, adult and juvenile probation and parole district offices, and all other services provided by the department.
Borja Penalba Catalá is a composer, record producer, arranger and musician. He has worked with and for, among others, Feliu Ventura, Lluís Llach, Lluís Danés, Obrint Pas, Miquel Gil, Joan Amèric, Marc Parrot, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Bruno Oro, Albert Pla, Lídia Pujol, Elena Gadel, Verdcel, Aspencat or Andreu Valor. He also was a member of the valencian rock band Dropo.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, that operated from 1836 to 2004. Part of the Missouri Department of Corrections, it served as the state of Missouri's primary maximum security institution. Before it closed, it was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River. It was replaced by the Jefferson City Correctional Center, which opened on September 15, 2004.
The 1978 Spanish Constitution bans capital punishment in Spain, except for wartime offences. Spain completely abolished capital punishment for all offenses, including in times of war, in October 1995.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted prisons globally. There have been outbreaks of COVID-19 reported in prisons and jails around the world, with the housing density and population turnover of many prisons contributing to an increased risk of contracting the virus compared to the general population. Prison crowding and lack of sanitation measures contribute to the risk of contracting diseases in prisons and jails. As a mitigation measure, several jurisdictions have released prisoners to reduce density and attempt to reduce the spread of the illness. There have also been protests among prisoners, riots and prison breaks in multiple countries in response to prisoner anger over their risk of contracting illness in prison conditions. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, health services within prisons had issues providing adequate care for incarcerated people, and this has only been exacerbated by the impacts of COVID-19. Minority groups within the prison system have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prison 77 is a 2022 Spanish historical thriller drama film directed by Alberto Rodríguez from a screenplay co-written with Rafael Cobos which stars Miguel Herrán and Javier Gutiérrez.
Andrea Ros is a Spanish film, theater and television actress.
Magda Oranich i Solagran is a Spanish lawyer, journalist and politician from Catalonia. She was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia in its 4th session, and stood for election again, unsuccessfully, in 2017. Her legal speciality is in family law.
The Terrorism Confinement Center is a maximum security prison located in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The prison was built in late 2022 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown in El Salvador and was opened by the Salvadoran government in January 2023.
Margalida Bover i Vadell is a Mallorcan feminist and environmentalist, known for being the last partner of Salvador Puig i Antich, the last Catalan to be executed by Francoist Spain. Joan Isaac dedicated the song A Margalida to her in 1976.
The Coordinadora de Presos en Lucha was a movement created in the end of 1976 in the Carabanchel prison by a group of prisoners with the help of a group of lawyers and it aimed to achieve amnesty or pardon for all prisoners and to improve the living conditions in prisons.