Penitentiary grades: what it means to be in the first, second or third grade
When a person enters prison, one of the first decisions that will shape their life in the penitentiary system is their classification into a treatment grade. That grade, first, second or third, is not a mere label: it determines the level of restriction to which the inmate is subject, what activities they can carry out, how freely they can move and within what period they can access the benefits that bring them closer to freedom.
The Spanish system is progressive and dynamic: the inmate is not condemned to remain in the same grade throughout the sentence. Through treatment, good conduct and participation in reintegration programmes they can progress to less restrictive grades; and if their behaviour deteriorates, they can regress to a more restrictive one. The system is based on the constitutional principle of orienting penalties towards reintegration, and Article 72 of the General Penitentiary Organic Law establishes that classification must respond to an individualised study of each inmate's circumstances. Each centre's Treatment Board proposes the classification; the inmate may challenge it before the prison supervision judge.
The first grade, or closed regime, is the most severe. It applies to inmates of extreme dangerousness or with serious maladjustment to the ordinary regime. It involves a maximum of hours outside the cell, intense surveillance, restrictions on communications, frequent searches and the impossibility of accessing leaves. It may take the form of a special unit, the most restrictive, or of an ordinary closed regime, and must be reviewed at least every three months.
The second grade, or ordinary regime, is the one in which the majority of inmates are. It does not entail the extreme restrictions of the first grade nor the openness of the third. Inmates live in ordinary units and access training programmes, work, sporting and cultural activities, and communications under ordinary conditions. There are respect modules and therapeutic modules with more structured conditions. From the second grade, ordinary leaves can be accessed when a quarter of the sentence has been served, no bad conduct is observed and there is a favourable prognosis.
The third grade, or open regime, is the form of service with the greatest social integration before parole. The inmate can leave the centre during the day to work or carry out activities and returns to spend the night. It admits modalities: full open regime, life in dependent units and attenuated imprisonment, in some cases with electronic monitoring. To access it, as a general rule, half of the sentence must have been served, although it can be brought forward if the inmate's progress justifies it.
Classification is based on criteria such as the seriousness of the offence and the record, behaviour in the centre, the prognosis of reintegration, social and family ties, the attitude towards the offence and the victims and participation in treatment programmes. None of them is decisive on its own: classification results from the joint and weighted assessment of all of them.
The system is dynamic: progression to a less restrictive grade and regression to a more restrictive one are possible. Both are proposed by the Treatment Board and can be challenged before the prison supervision judge. The lawyer specialising in penitentiary law can challenge classifications, argue for progressions and combat unjustified regressions by providing reports that reinforce the inmate's position.
