The Centro Penitenciaro Madrid VII, better known as Estremera Prison () is a prison in

Estremera Estremera is a municipality of the autonomous community of Madrid in central Spain. It belongs to the comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former ...

, in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

, Spain.

History

The prison was opened on 15 July 2008 by

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (; 28 July 1951 – 10 May 2019) was a Spanish statesman, politician and chemist who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from 2010 to 2011, and previously as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993, as Minister of ...

, and took in inmates from September. It was the seventh prison in the region and first to be built in the 21st century. Built to alleviate overcrowding at the other six, it has 1,214 cells including 74 that are high-security; it replaced the one in

Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of the Tagus, a bit upstream of the discharge of the Jarama. , the munici ...

(1,157) as the largest prison in the region. Architect Marta Cao designed it with colours, gardens and solar panels to create a less uncomfortable atmosphere. Women are also detained at the prison, in segregated blocks. By November 2017, its capacity was recorded as 1,500. It cost €100 million to build. In April 2020, it was reported to be the prison most affected by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, with 15 inmates and four workers infected. In November 2020, staff were formally investigated for alleged abuses. The prison had received 40 allegations of torture in the last five years.

Notable inmates

* Patrick Nogueira, Brazilian serving three life sentences plus 25 years for murdering four family members in 2016. Held in solitary confinement wing. Moved in November 2021 after being beaten by inmates. * Torbe, Spanish pornographer, served six months of pre-trial detention in 2016 for alleged sex trafficking. * Francisco Granados, People's Party politician in the Community of Madrid, served 31 months of pre-trial detention for alleged financial crimes. He had assisted in the opening of the prison. *

Oriol Junqueras Oriol Junqueras i Vies (; born 11 April 1969) is a Spain, Spanish politician and historian from Catalonia. A former mayor of the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts in Catalonia, Junqueras served as Vice President of Catalonia from January 2 ...

Raül Romeva Raül Romeva i Rueda (born 12 March 1971) is a Catalan politician from Spain and a former Member of the European Parliament with the , part of the European Greens. He sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Comm ...

Joaquim Forn Joaquim Forn i Chiariello (born 1 April 1964) is a Spanish politician and lawyer from Catalonia. A former deputy mayor of the city of Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, Forn served as Minister of the Interior from July 2017 to October 2017 when h ...

, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull,

Carles Mundó Carles Mundó i Blanch (born 1976) is a Spanish lawyer and politician from Catalonia who served as the Minister of Justice of Catalonia until the dismissal of the Parliament of Catalonia and of the Catalan Government in 2017 due to its decla ...

and Santi Vila. Catalan separatist politicians arrested over the

2017 Catalan independence referendum An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalun ...

. * Francisco Javier García Gaztelu.

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

commander known as "Txapote", sentenced to over 500 years in prison for assassinations of figures including

Miguel Ángel Blanco Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido (13 May 1968 – 13 July 1997) was a Spanish economist and municipal politician and a member of the People's Party, in Ermua, the Basque Country. He was kidnapped and murdered by the Basque separatist group ETA. ...

and

Gregorio Ordóñez Gregorio Ordóñez Fenollar (21 July 1958 – 23 January 1995) was a Spanish People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP) politician in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. He was elected to the City Council in San Sebastián ...

. Transferred to Estremera in March 2021.

References

{{coord, 40.11540, -3.07647, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:ES, display=title Prisons in Spain Buildings and structures in the Community of Madrid 2008 establishments in Spain