A criminal conviction, if widely known, constitutes a life-long stigma that limits the convicted person's employment and other opportunities. European countries, including Spain, recognizing an individual right of informational privacy and a societal interest in limiting recidivism, sharply restrict the dissemination of individual criminal history information. By contrast, the USA, in accordance with its commitments to judicial transparency, free speech and the individual's right of self protection, allows (and even promotes) extensive dissemination of individual criminal history information. This article compares the profoundly different policies on providing public access to individual criminal history information in Spain and the USA, illuminating the cultural and legal values behind each country's policies and the tensions both countries encounter in attempting to reconcile these policies with other socio-political values and goals.

Estudios previos sobre la vida en los centros penitenciarios españoles han tendido a hablar de ‘la’ prisión como una institución con condiciones de encarcelamiento uniformes. Sin embargo, la literatura internacional sugiere que la privación de libertad puede experimentarse de forma muy distinta según el centro penitenciario donde se cumpla condena. Esta investigación analiza si existen distintos tipos de prisión en España, a qué factores son debidas dichas diferencias, cuáles son más relevantes y cuáles son sus implicaciones. Con esta finalidad, hemos administrado el cuestionario Measuring Quality of Prison Life a quinientos presos en cuatro centros penitenciarios de Barcelona. Los resultados de nuestro estudio muestran que la calidad de vida difiere significativamente entre las prisiones analizadas. Estas diferencias, que conllevan importantes consecuencias para las personas presas, no obedecen en exclusiva al historial del interno, sino también, o sobre todo, a la organización del centro y al sistema de relaciones interpersonales existente.

This article discusses whether there is an increasing demand for criminal background checks in continental Europe. It also presents the legislative framework regulating criminal background checks in Europe where a requirement of ‘proof of a clean criminal record’ in public administration often co-exists with a situation where no specific laws regulate the rights of private employers to ask for such proof. Finally, the article suggests some legal protections for ex-offenders against the increasing use of criminal records in the job market and suggests that a law may be necessary to regulate the right of private employers to conduct criminal background checks.

This paper explains the institution of prison leave in Spain. Firstly, I will briefly describe the regulations governing prison leave and provide data on its use in Spain. I will point out that although half the prison population benefits from a prison leave, a main problem is that it is granted at a very late stage of the sentence, and that immigrants have a very low probability of obtaing it. Secondly, I will explain the criteria used in order to determine if a leave is granted, the wide discretion that psychologists in particular enjoy, and why this procedure might be experienced by the prisoner as unfair. Thirdly, I will describe the mixed system that allows both Prison Boards and Judges to make decisions about leave and how this often produces confusing results for prisoners. For instance, a positive prison report being followed by a negative judicial response due to the wide discretion that judicial authorities also enjoy. Finally, I draw some tentative conclusions about how a lack of clear criteria and procedure in relation to prison leave might also affect legitimacy in prison.

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