For an inmate who has spent months or years in prison, the first time they leave the facility — even if only for 48 hours — can be one of the most significant moments of the entire sentence. Release permits are the inmate's first real contact with life outside the facility, the first opportunity to discover whether the family and social ties strained by imprisonment are still capable of supporting them, and the first tangible sign that definitive freedom is no longer merely an abstraction but a reality drawing closer.
However, permits are not an automatic right that the inmate can demand at any time. They are a tool of the penitentiary treatment system that has precise requirements, can be refused on grounds established by law, and requires careful management by both the inmate and their lawyer. A permit that is poorly applied for, without the appropriate supporting evidence or at an inopportune moment, may not only be refused but may also damage the inmate's standing before the Treatment Board.
In this article we explain what prison release permits are, what types exist, what requirements must be met to obtain them, what the most frequent grounds for refusal are, how to challenge a refusal, and what strategy to follow to maximise the chances of obtaining them.
What Are Prison Release Permits?
Release permits are authorisations granted to inmates to temporarily leave the penitentiary facility, interrupt the ordinary serving of the sentence for a limited period, and make contact with the outside world. They are regulated under Article 47 of the General Organic Prison Law and Articles 154 to 162 of the Prison Regulations.
Permits are not an act of benevolence or a relaxation of prison discipline: they form part of the treatment system oriented towards social reintegration. Their purpose is to maintain the inmate's ties with the outside world — particularly with their family —, to prepare their gradual reintegration into society, and to verify that the reintegration process is working correctly. An inmate who makes good use of their permits demonstrates that the open regime is viable for them; an inmate who fails to comply with the conditions of the permit or who does not return on time reveals that they are not yet ready for higher levels of openness.
Types of Prison Release Permits
Ordinary Release Permits
Ordinary permits are those granted on a periodic basis to prepare the inmate for life in freedom. Each permit has a maximum duration of seven days, and the total of all ordinary permits may not exceed thirty-six days per year for second-degree inmates and forty-eight days for those in the third degree.
These permits are granted when the inmate has served one quarter of the sentence, demonstrates good conduct, and obtains a favourable prognosis. For inmates classified at the second degree, permits lasting more than two days require the approval of the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge in addition to a favourable proposal from the Treatment Board.
Extraordinary Permits
Extraordinary permits are granted in special circumstances that make the inmate's release necessary regardless of the degree in which they are classified or the time served. The most common grounds are:
- The death or serious illness of a close family member — spouse, children, parents, siblings.
- The inmate's marriage or registration of a civil partnership.
- The birth of the inmate's child.
- Specialist medical treatment that cannot be provided within the facility.
- Other exceptional circumstances of comparable significance.
Extraordinary permits have a duration proportionate to the circumstance that gives rise to them and may be granted even to first-degree inmates, though in such cases under particularly strict conditions. Their granting does not require the time requirements of ordinary permits to be met.
The Requirements for Ordinary Permits
For a second-degree inmate to access ordinary release permits, the following requirements must all be met simultaneously:
Having Served One Quarter of the Sentence
This is the basic time requirement: the inmate must have served at least one quarter of the total sentence. This calculation includes any period of pre-trial detention credited to the sentence. For terrorism offences and certain serious offences, the timeframes may be more demanding depending on the specific applicable legislation.
Demonstrating Good Conduct
The inmate must have a record of good conduct within the facility that supports the administration's confidence that the permit will be used appropriately. The absence of recent unsatisfied disciplinary sanctions, participation in the facility's activities, and appropriate relations with officers and fellow inmates are factors that the Treatment Board weighs when assessing this requirement.
Obtaining a Favourable Prognosis of Non-Absconding
This is the most subjective requirement: the Treatment Board must arrive at a favourable prognosis that the inmate will return to the facility at the end of the permit. In forming that prognosis, consideration is given to the inmate's family and social ties — an inmate with family awaiting them and a stable home is less likely to fail to return —, their behavioural history within the facility, the gravity and nature of the offence, and any other circumstance that makes it possible to foresee that the inmate will take the responsibility of the permit seriously.
The Application and Granting Process
The application for a permit may be submitted by the inmate themselves or by their lawyer, generally addressed to the Treatment Board of the facility. It is advisable to submit it with sufficient advance notice — at least several weeks before the intended date — so that the Board has time to assess it, gather the necessary reports, and process it before the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge if required.
The application must be accompanied by information about the permit plan: where the inmate will be during the permit, who they will be with, what activities they will carry out, and how they will return to the facility. The more detailed and concrete the plan, the more confidence it conveys to the Treatment Board and the greater the likelihood that the permit will be granted.
If the Treatment Board proposes the permit favourably, in cases where judicial approval is required the file passes to the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge, who may approve it, refuse it, or make it subject to conditions. If the PSJ approves the permit, the inmate is notified and the specific conditions under which it will be carried out are established.
The Most Frequent Grounds for Refusal
The refusal of a permit may be based on a wide variety of grounds, some related to the failure to meet the formal requirements and others on the discretionary assessments of the Treatment Board or the PSJ as to the appropriateness of granting it.
Not Having Served the Minimum Time
This is the most objective and most uncontestable ground: the inmate has not yet served one quarter of the sentence. In this case, the refusal is automatic and cannot be successfully challenged except in exceptional circumstances. The only option is to wait for the necessary time to pass.
A Negative Disciplinary History
The existence of recent disciplinary sanctions or an accumulation of infringements of the facility's internal regulations is one of the most frequent grounds for refusal. An inmate who has recently been sanctioned sends a signal that the level of self-control that the permit requires — leaving the facility and voluntarily returning on time — cannot be taken for granted. Sanctions that have already been cancelled carry less weight, but recent ones are a significant obstacle.
Risk of Non-Return or Absconding
The Treatment Board or the PSJ may refuse the permit if they consider that there is a real risk that the inmate will not return. This risk is assessed through factors such as the absence of ties — having no family or stable home —, connections abroad, the gravity of the sentence still to be served — the longer the outstanding sentence, the greater the incentive not to return — and the type of offence committed.
Unfavourable Reintegration Prognosis
Even where the inmate meets the formal requirements, the Treatment Board may refuse the permit if the reports from the technical team — psychological, social — yield an unfavourable prognosis regarding the use the inmate would make of the permit and their ability to reintegrate into the outside environment without incident.
Nature of the Offence and Circumstances of the Case
For certain types of offence — particularly gender-based violence, sexual offences, and offences against minors — the refusal of a permit may be based on the specific risk to the victim or to society that allowing the inmate to leave the facility would entail. In such cases, the permit may be refused even if the inmate meets all the formal requirements, if the technical team considers that the risk is not sufficiently controlled.
Lack of a Concrete and Reliable Permit Plan
A permit whose life plan is vague — "I will be at my family's house" — without further specification may be refused for lack of verifiable elements. The Treatment Board needs to know who the inmate will be with, at what specific address, what activities they will be carrying out, and how it will be verified that they are where they say they will be. A detailed and verifiable plan has significantly greater chances of the permit being granted.
How to Challenge the Refusal of a Permit
When the Treatment Board or the PSJ refuses a permit, the inmate may challenge that refusal before the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge — if the refusal was made by the Board — or before the Provincial Court — if the refusal was made by the PSJ itself.
The appeal must be submitted within the established timeframe — generally five working days — and must identify with precision which aspects of the refusal are incorrect. The most effective arguments are:
- The decision is insufficiently reasoned — it relies on generic formulae without analysis of the inmate's specific circumstances.
- The technical reports on which it is based are outdated or incomplete.
- The risk of non-return is not sufficiently established in light of the inmate's specific circumstances.
- Excessive weight has been given to factors that do not in themselves justify the refusal — such as the gravity of the offence committed, without adequately assessing the inmate's subsequent progress.
The submission of additional documentation that rebuts the grounds for refusal — external expert reports, updated evidence of ties to the community, documented commitments from the receiving family — can significantly strengthen the appeal.
Strategy for Maximising the Chances of Obtaining a Permit
The best strategy for obtaining a permit is advance preparation. It is not a matter of submitting the application when the formal requirements are met and waiting to see what happens: the lawyer and the inmate must work for months to build a situation in which granting the permit becomes the obvious decision for the Treatment Board.
This involves, among other things, maintaining good behaviour within the facility so as not to have recent sanctions, actively participating in all available treatment programmes, constructing a detailed and verifiable permit plan with the collaboration of the family, and, if necessary, providing external expert reports that reinforce the favourable reintegration prognosis.
The active support of the receiving family is particularly important. A family member who can demonstrate that they have a stable home, who commits to supervising the inmate during the permit, and who presents an attitude of cooperation and responsibility to the facility carries enormous weight in the Treatment Board's assessment. The permit is not enjoyed solely by the inmate: it is shared with their family, and that family must also convey trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days of leave is an inmate entitled to per year?
A second-degree inmate is entitled to a maximum of thirty-six days of ordinary release leave per year, spread across individual periods of up to seven days each. A third-degree inmate may benefit from up to forty-eight days. These are maximum limits: the administration may grant fewer days if the circumstances of the case advise it. Extraordinary permits do not count towards these limits.
Can a permit be granted to an inmate who has not yet served one quarter of their sentence if they have a serious illness?
Yes. Extraordinary permits are not subject to the time requirement of one quarter of the sentence. If the inmate — or a close family member — is suffering from a serious illness or an especially urgent circumstance arises, an extraordinary permit may be requested without the need to have met that time requirement. Granting it depends on the gravity and verifiability of the circumstances claimed.
Can the Penitentiary Surveillance Judge grant a permit that the Treatment Board has refused?
Yes. The PSJ has jurisdiction to review the Treatment Board's refusals of permits and may order the granting of the permit if it considers that the refusal is not justified. However, the PSJ may also impose additional conditions on the permit — for example, requiring the inmate to report to the facility every day, restricting the geographical area of the permit, or imposing electronic monitoring during the permit — even if the Board's proposal had not included them.
What happens if the inmate does not return at the end of the permit?
Failure to return at the end of the permit — also known as "breach of sentence" — has very serious consequences. The inmate becomes a fugitive, a search and arrest warrant is issued, and when they are apprehended they face a new conviction for the offence of breach of sentence under Article 468 of the Criminal Code. They are also returned to the most restrictive degree possible, lose the penitentiary benefits they had accumulated, and the refusal of future permits is virtually guaranteed for an extended period.
Can a permit be refused because the victim objects?
The victim may be informed of permits affecting the inmate who harmed them and may submit their observations to the prison administration and the PSJ. However, the victim's objection is not binding on the decision regarding the permit: that decision is made on the basis of the legal criteria for reintegration, not on the wishes of the victim. What may happen is that the existence of a risk to the victim — assessed technically, not solely on the basis of their statement — is a factor that the Treatment Board or the PSJ weighs significantly in their decision.
