A 42-year-old inmate died on Sunday afternoon at the Poniente Penitentiary Center of Lleida after suffering a sudden collapse. The woman died around 7:00 PM in the bathroom of the yard designated for the women's module.
The health personnel from the center itself immediately attended to provide first aid before the arrival of the Medical Emergency Service. The SEM professionals tried to revive her without success and certified her death at the scene.
The ingested drug caused the outcome
The first investigations point to an overdose caused by the rupture of a drug wrapper that the inmate had swallowed. This event occurred during a conjugal visit without glass that same morning in the facilities.
"The inmates assume the risk with unconsciousness" - Reliable sources
Said sources confirmed that this type of encounters constitute the main entry route for illicit substances into the facility. The Department of Justice has initially ruled out the suicide hypothesis while awaiting the autopsy results.
Second death in less than thirty days
This sad event marks the second death recorded in this penitentiary center in less than a month. Tension in the institution grows after recent mournful events.
On April 16, A.P.S., a 78-year-old man who shot and killed his son-in-law, a Mossos d'Esquadra officer, in the Cappont neighborhood last October, took his own life.
The situation transcends the local sphere because five suicides have been registered in Catalan prisons so far this year. Three of these cases occurred in the Puig de les Basses Penitentiary Center in Figueres.
"A scapegoat" - CSIF Union
The union organization denounced that the current protocol to prevent suicides is not working correctly. This criticism coincides with the resignation of the director of the Figueres prison.
The accumulation of deaths in such a short period of time places the prison system under intense social and political pressure. The exact circumstances surrounding the ingestion of the package by A. R. M. are now under the scrutiny of the ordinary judicial investigation.