Social intervention in semi-open prisons in Spain

Since 1993, 32 social integration centres (CIS) have been created in Spain as places where the sentence can be served in conditions of semi-liberty. These places hold people classified by the system as having a low risk of recidivism. The aim of the chapter is to analyse the different forms of social intervention that take place in the CIS and how they are supporting re-entry into society. To this end, a mixed methods methodology was used. The results show the difficulties of prisoners in re-entry, the scarce human resources of the institution and their use in control tasks. The third sector is also under-resourced, under-funded, under-professionalised and lacks the necessary coordination with the penitentiary institution. All this has contributed to transforming the CIS into a place of transition experienced as just another sentence.