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Portugal Penal System
The Portuguese penal system was under the control of
the
minister of justice. Portugal had thirty-nine prisons and
three
military prisons as of 1988. The civilian prisons included
twelve
central prisons, twenty-four regional prisons, and three
special
institutions. Their total capacity was 7,633, and the
actual
population as of December 31, 1987, was 8,361. Of this
total,
6,964 were adult males, 475 were adult females, and 922
were
youths under the age of twenty-one. There were 186
military
prisoners. The prison population had remained fairly
stable
between 1984 and 1988. By far the largest institutions
were the
central prisons, which had a total capacity of 4,870. The
regional prison capacity was 1,758; the special prison,
706; and
the military prisons, 299.
Seven reformatories held 457 male youths, and 211
female
juveniles were detained at three institutions. The
remainder were
assigned to observation and social action centers at
Lisbon,
Porto, and Coimbra.
The average time served in prisons by adult males was
about
six months. The incarceration ratio in 1990 was 83 per
100,000
population, comparable to the ratios in neighboring Spain
and
France but only one-fifth that of the United States.
The type of prison regime to which an offender was
sentenced
was designated by the district punishment court upon
conviction.
Youthful offenders were given opportunities to learn
trades. The
mastery of a trade while in prison and good behavior were
considered in reducing time spent in prison. Individuals
convicted three times of the same crime were considered a
danger
to society and were not usually eligible for parole.
Unlike other
prisoners, who might be allowed to do farm work, they
could be
kept to a strict prison regime. All prisoners earned money
for
their work while in prison, and work was considered a
necessary
part of the rehabilitation process.
Occasional complaints of individual mistreatment by
police
and prison authorities were investigated by the ombudsman.
In
1985 a number of FP-25 prisoners engaged in periodic
hunger
strikes and other protests against prison conditions. A
stricter
regime was imposed on those remaining after ten FP-25
members
accused of common crimes escaped from Lisbon's main
penitentiary.
The United States State Department's human rights reports
asserted that no independent evidence had appeared
confirming the
inadequacy of prison conditions.
* * *
Among various studies analyzing Portugal's national
security
objectives, a particularly incisive treatment is
"Portuguese
Defense Policy," by Alvaro Vasconcelos. Appraising the
armed
forces' modernization program since the early 1980s,
Vasconcelos
also discusses Portugal's changing goals during several
phases of
its membership in the NATO alliance. Portuguese Defense
and
Foreign Policy Since Democratization, edited by
Kenneth
Maxwell, contains a number of valuable essays on
Portugal's
defense policy. A full account of the involvement of the
Portuguese armed forces in the political events of 1974-75
can be
found in Douglas Porch's The Portuguese Armed Forces
and the
Revolution. Richard Alan Hodgson Robinson's
Contemporary
Portugal addresses the relationship between the
political and
military leadership during the Salazar and Caetano eras
and
through the revolution. Works by Tom Gallagher and Thomas
C.
Bruneau add observations on the interaction between the
military
and civilian politicians into the 1980s. The Portuguese
justice
system and the status of civil rights are briefly surveyed
in the
United States Department of State's annual Country
Reports on
Human Rights Practices.
Data on the size, organization, and armaments of the
Portuguese armed forces can be found in The Military
Balance,
1991-92, published by the International Institute for
Strategic Studies in London, supplemented by information
in
Jane's Fighting Ships, DMS Market Intelligence
Reports, and occasional reports in the Portuguese
press.
Jane's NATO Handbook, 1990-91, contains additional
information on the Portuguese defense establishment and on
Portuguese links to NATO and IBERLANT. (For further
information
and complete citations, see Bibliography).
Data as of January 1993
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