Practical guide · Prison law
When a family member enters prison in Spain: a practical guide for the family
Your relative has just entered prison and nobody explains what to do. This guide walks step by step through everything the family needs to know in the first days — written from real practice, not from leaflets.
Has your relative just been admitted? Call me: 618 529 393 — 24-hour emergencies. Also on WhatsApp.
1. The first 72 hours
In short: admission usually comes by surprise — pre-trial detention or an arrest warrant. He is not held incommunicado: he will be able to call and receive visits. First steps: find out which prison he is in and write down his NIS.
Prison almost never announces itself. Either the court orders pre-trial detention after the arrest, or there was an outstanding warrant — sometimes for an old conviction — and the arrest comes at a checkpoint, at the airport, at home. The family finds out suddenly, and the first hours are bewildering: where is he?, can he call?, what do we do?
The essentials: he is not incommunicado (that is utterly exceptional). In the first days he will be able to call, meet his lawyer without restrictions and organise communications with you. Your first three tasks: confirm which prison he is in, write down his NIS number as soon as you have it, and sign or declare nothing before speaking with the defence.
2. The NIS: the number that opens everything
In short: it is the inmate’s identification number. Write it down on day one: you will be asked for it for money, visits and phones.
The NIS is the inmate’s identification number in the prison system. You will need it for almost everything: depositing money into his peculio, booking visits online, topping up the phone. Without the NIS, most procedures stall. Ask him for it in the first call, or ask the lawyer.
3. Talking to him: calls and phone
In short: he submits a list of authorised numbers (around ten). The first month, as a rule, he can call without formalities; after that, phone bills are required. Booth credit is topped up online.
The inmate gives the prison a limited list of authorised numbers — around ten, including his lawyer’s. During the first month, as a general rule, he can call them without further paperwork; after that, the prison requires proof of who owns each number, usually the phone bill. A practical tip: start requesting those bills from your provider in the first week — it is the formality that cuts off the most calls in month two.
Phone-booth credit is topped up online — at many prisons through the MyTelio platform, though it is worth confirming with the specific prison — using the NIS and from an authorised number.
4. Money: peculio and the prison shop
In short: no cash circulates inside. Money goes into his peculio — an internal account — and he uses it at the economato and to top up the phone.
There is no cash in prison. Each inmate has a peculio: a kind of internal wallet-account. The family deposits money (using the NIS), and with that balance he buys at the economato — the prison’s small shop: tobacco, food, toiletries — and tops up the phone booth. In the first days he usually needs more than people expect: he enters with nothing.
5. Visiting him
In short: there are weekly ordinary visits and periodic longer ones. Appointments are booked online with the NIS and kinship must be documented.
Visits are booked online on the Penitentiary Institutions website, with the NIS and the visitors’ details. There are ordinary visits (through glass, weekly) and special or vis-a-vis visits (family and intimate, periodic, without glass). Relatives document kinship with family records or equivalent papers; close friends without kinship must be proposed by the inmate. Always bring ID — without it you will not get in —, arrive early, and check the specific prison’s rules on what may be handed in.
6. His belongings
In short: what he had on him is held by the prison. To recover it, he must file a written request authorising a specific person.
House keys, phone, wallet: everything he had on him at admission stays in the prison’s custody, and the family cannot simply go and ask for it. The path: the inmate fills in a written request («instancia») stating which item he hands over and which specific person he authorises to collect it — ideally with their ID number. Once processed, the authorised person attends with their ID and collects it. It seems minor — until what is inside is the car keys.
7. Closer to home: the transfer
In short: a transfer to a closer prison can be requested on family grounds. The prison administration decides (with the court, if he is on remand) and it takes months: apply early.
If the prison is far away, a transfer can be requested on family grounds: the inmate files the request and the family strengthens it by documenting the distance, the journeys and the circumstances (young children, health, work). If he is serving a final sentence, the prison administration decides; if he is on remand, the court’s approval is also needed. Real timelines are measured in months — so apply early and well founded, do not wait.
8. And now — how long? Grades, permits and release
In short: the system works in stages — classification, permits from one quarter, open regime, parole. Every refusal can be appealed.
With a final sentence, classification comes within about two months (normally second grade: ordinary regime). Ordinary leave permits can be requested after one quarter of the sentence with good behaviour — the first are the hardest; then they chain. Third grade (semi-liberty) comes when progress supports it, and long sentences may require half served. Parole is the final stage. Every refusal — of a permit, of a grade — is appealed before the prison supervision judge, and much more is won there than people think. If he is on remand, the path is different: reviewing and appealing the pre-trial detention.
9. What I do in all of this
In short: the defence does not end with the judgment. I accompany the inmate and the family through the whole journey — in your language.
My work does not end with the trial: I stay beside the client inside — prison visits, requests, permits, grades, appeals before the supervision judge (prison law) — and beside the family outside, guiding you through every step of this guide from day one. In English, directly with me.
Has a family member just entered prison? Call me: 618 529 393 — 24-hour criminal emergencies, every day. Also on WhatsApp.