Let’s start off with some good news this month – God knows that there isn’t much news for the town this month, other than political pledges for the local elections on the 25th of this month.

The Agrupacion de Cofradías (Semana Santa Brotherhoods), and more specifically the Santo Domingo and the the Hermandad de la Soledad de San Jerónimo ones, have acquired a judicial pardon for a prison inmate. In the case of the former, it is the first time that they have done it, and in the case of the latter, it is the first time in 83 years.

The “reprieved sinner” is a young man from the village, Sr. J.D.S., who hasn’t actually been to prison yet, but was on the point of entering. Two years ago he was caught with an impressive stash of drugs in his car for sale. During the two years that it took for the notoriously slow judicial system to get round to actually trying him and sentencing him to prison, he had turned over a complete new leaf (begun afresh), in fact, he is now married, become a father and is holding down a steady job.

Now, as the Spanish legal system is built upon reinserción social; i.e., reforming the person’s character ready to return to society as an honest person, it is pointless sending the man to prison to achieve that if it has already been attained. Putting the man in jail would destroy a healthy family life and probably put him back on the wrong track, thanks to the company he would be keeping in the land of striped sunshine (prison).
The prime moving force behind the pardon was, in fact, the teachers from his old school, who considered that it was not so much that he was a bad apple, but had foolishly moved in the wrong circles.

Anyway, he won’t have to go to prison now, so all ends well. Mind you, if he’s caught again… off with his pods!