Simon Hunter
A 60-YEAR-OLD cancer sufferer from Granada has requested to be voluntarily taken into prison because, he says, he is afraid of ‘being alone’ all day given his state of health. In jail, he claims, he would have companions who could ‘attend to him and assist him’.
As well as having cancer, Justo Marquez also suffers heart problems, depression and anxiety, according to newspaper 20 Minutos. His poor state of health has seen him referred to mental health services on a number of occasions, but he has been repeatedly told to visit his GP.
As a result he says that he feels he has been left ‘destitute’ by the social and health services.
“I can’t find any help anywhere and going into jail is an idea that I had,” he said. “But I don’t want to commit any crime.”
He added that he was ‘desperate’ to find a solution to his problem and to no longer be ‘alone 24 hours a day’.
On Monday of this week he turned up at the Alhaurin de la Torre penitentiary to request he be let in. He was carrying a sign that read: “I want to go to jail.”
He has made clear that he will continue to protest at the doors of the prison until his situation is resolved.
Marquez, a father of five, also managed to speak to the prison warden this week, who said that he would not be able to enter the penitentiary on a voluntary basis.
He previously spent two years in jail when he was a younger man on drugs-related charges, but claims that he has been clean for more than three decades.
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