Interview with Jesus Rubio Sarabia

Jesús Rubio Sarabia (Montiel, Ciudad Real, Spain, 1945). He has worked for more than 30 years as an «interior» prison officer, performing surveillance duties at the D’Homes Penitentiary Center of Barcelona (the Model), at the Prison Psychiatric Care Center of Madrid (psychiatric of Carabanchel), in the Penitentiary Center Madrid I (Carabanchel prison) and the Penitentiary Center Madrid IV (Navalcarnero jail) until his retirement. From a class syndicalism, he actively participates in the first mobilizations of this body of civil servants in 1982, which, summoned by the Workers Commissions of Prisons and the Democratic Union of Prisons, involved the confinement of workers in the inside prisons for an indefinite period, action with which they demanded improvements in their working conditions and a dignified treatment to inmates. He is currently a member of the «Association of Neighbors of Carabanchel Alto», where he collaborates with the quarterly magazine «Nuestro Barrio» as columnist and illustrator, and of the «Ateneo Republicano de Carabanchel Alto». A great lover and connoisseur of art, he established a relationship of «friendship» with Manuel Delgado Villegas in the Psychiatry of Carabanchel, based on mutual interest in artistic practice.

Transcript (partial) INTERVIEW I: JESÚS RUBIO SARABIA

«It was a prison, what happens is that there was a medical team, there were psychiatrists who gave medication»

(«Agitated Department») «It was the department where the inmates went, who either came in a situation of difficult» soul stability «or lost it … that first» Department of Agitated «, that was incredible .. that can hardly be described … first it had to come down and then it was like a cage of animals.for one part, the animal was visible, had its corresponding fence and then the back was all work of masonry, but each one of the cells where the inmates had a corresponding hole for their surveillance, all this in a round building, and you could circulate around in there. was the light that came from the courtyards, which corresponded to a few windows that were at ground level, the impression was that the one who was there was like a wild animal. he had was that of a beast. (…) It was like a modern movie, you put it as a kind of house, you put it inside, as if it were in a vacuum. That was in a vacuum. Because to go down the stairs, truly … they were not of these snail but they were almost … that is, their access, that of the official who was always upstairs: had a comprehensive control … then you entered as in a different dimension (…) No: the patio did not go out … Man, then you already know that prisoners if they are considered dangerous, ordinary prisoners today, because patio hours are very limited in some cases, but by law they are entitled to a patio schedule, effectively. Then no. No, there were no lawyers there. Now a person, an intern with his lawyer can exercise:
«I have these patio hours and they have to be done.»
Today I think it is a little unthinkable that that does not run, but anyway, I do not there either, as it is said, «I would put my hand on the fire» … Those laws that are reducing the hours of patio, are singular laws, no? of exceptionality. All that is exceptional, progress in exceptionality, has as a repressive purpose … that can have a valuation at the level of security but … the fact that the exceptionality is spreading like a stain: that is always a danger . »
(The stay in the «Agitated Pavilion») «That was indefinite, until the emotional state was altered. Once he had been given adequate dosage of pills, psychiatric medication (…) and was coming out calm: you enter there … the stay is very difficult and then if you have a medication that you are going to dose to the rise … the truth is that you heal almost «for charm», you have no alteration … alteration was: elevations of voice, of gesticulation … It was not that they were unusual things but that somehow … there were discussions with the elements of standardization or it was also a kind of withdrawal that had the own person. that already had an evaluation of the environment in which it was, it was not a qualified evaluation: it could be the companion, the «nurse» or the official … And it was perceived that there had been a change of functioning, of behavior, it was not the usual: there had been a distancing d the middle (…) And then as there were predictions: if this gentleman has given «the bird» and since it was known that before, sometimes, had also happened, as cyclically could be repeated … It was already noticed and took «nature card»: I was entering «la pájara» (…) With which, I was already in the immediate or immediate environment to «Agitated», because if that «pájara» later became remarkable … passed to the «Department of Agitated». In this situation he had super vigilance over him. «The birds» were common. »
«There were tails to take the medication, but tails to see the doctor there was not (…) Next to» the bird «appeared the concept of» cocktail. «» Cocktail «was not to give you an aspirin … there were the typical medicines that were left to you … It was a real «cocktail», to leave a person reduced to the minimum capacity to do something: To make purely vegetative (…) In the case of giving a person of a systematic way, without periods of lowering that medication, to adapt it … because that, of course, has to crush the person (…) There was a typical example of the «cocktail» and its side effects, was the continuous trembling of hands , with impossibilities at the time of eating, to take the spoon to the mouth.These were the so-called side effects, which were left there … It was such a common language there that it shows you how that worked: «la pájara» and «the cocktail.» This in a psychiatric establishment, let’s say, normal, because I do not I know, that kind of generalizations … It denoted the handling that was there so easy of the matter (…)
«In these» brigades «they also had the toilet and there were showers, and these showers, it was said, I could never confirm, that they were used by the» nurses «as an element of coercion, to mistreat the patient. intimidation, that is to say, «if you do not function as I wish or you are surpassing or you do not let me sleep or any other circumstance, because I am going to give you a shower of cold water» … at untimely hours, it could be night plan:
«I’ll pick you up, I’ll put you there, period.»
And there was no uprising or anything. And you, if you tried to find out who, what «nurse» could get to that practice, you could not know. First, because the inmate himself, if he were to say, feared that a more severe repression would be exerted on him. And second, because they did not trust any kind of official at all to say that, because they knew that the «nurses» were the support, the direct communication of the official … It was torture, I suppose that is torture, can be cataloged as such. But it was very difficult to know who exercised it. But it did determine the general functioning, if not a high percentage, of how the «nurses» functioned: for control, because they were somehow required, the official wanted it to «work,» and then they had their elements of control, which were those. They had to account for a good functioning and had to make their practices tolerated. In my case I did not, I could not find out, and of course, I was aware. «

Year2014Produced byMinisterio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte Gobierno de España