The Department of Justice of the Generalitat announced this Tuesday that Carles López Gripa will be the new director of the Mas d'Enric penitentiary center (Tarragonès) following the resignation of Francesc Romero at his own request on March 27. The change will be effective this same day.
This recent change in management marks the beginning of a new stage for the center, which has experienced a period of crisis following the murder of a worker at the hands of an inmate. For his part, Romero will be appointed security coordinator of the Information and Security Area of the Secretariat of Penal Measures, Reintegration and Victim Assistance. This area is responsible for investigating and preventing possible crimes within Catalan prisons.
The new prison director has extensive experience in the field of prison management. López is a career civil servant in the higher body of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Since 2005 he has held different managerial responsibilities in the field of criminal enforcement.
For six years he was head of the Interior Penitentiary Regime area and, previously, he was deputy director of the Interior Regime of the Lledoners and Tarragona penitentiary centers, respectively. Furthermore, before being appointed prison director at Mas d'Enric, López had directed the Center Penitenciari Obert de Tarragona (COTA) since 2015. Likewise, it is a coincidence that at that time he also replaced Francesc Romero in his position.
On the other hand, the department of the Mas d'Enric penitentiary center assures that Romero has carried out "excellent" management of the center. He also stressed that the former director has carried out his responsibilities with "great professionalism and a vocation for public service."
Since 1997, Romero has held managerial responsibilities as administrator of the Ponent prison or deputy director of Règim de Ponent and Tarragona. Furthermore, before joining his management stage at Mas d'Enric, he was directing the old Tarragona prison from 2005 to 2015.
Francesc Romero will now assume new technical functions in the Information and Security Area (AIS), a prison services unit led by a senior official with extensive experience in the field. This area is dedicated to carrying out internal system information and analysis tasks.
