This Alicante County Court, under the enforcement of the law known as “only yes is yes,” now sits near the top of national rankings for sentence reductions. With fifty-five reductions and three versions recorded, the Alicante Court trails only the Madrid court in terms of total reductions and related orders, according to data from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) dated May 1. Madrid leads with the highest number of prison in-and-out orders, tallying 126 and 16 respectively, and the Alicante figures are closely watched as authorities monitor how changes in the penal framework affect real outcomes.
Madrid continues to drive the pace, with an additional one hundred eighty-seven ongoing revisions, suggesting that the numbers may climb further. Following Madrid and Alicante, Valencia and Cádiz appear with fifty-four and forty-nine revisions respectively, indicating regional variations in how quickly the new rules translate into court decisions.
Across the Commonwealth of Valencia courts, sentence reductions reached a total of one hundred forty-eight, alongside thirteen evictions. In the series of hearings, the High Court of Justice of the Commonwealth of Valencia reviewed forty-five sentences, resulting in nine reductions. These regional totals illustrate how the reform is playing out in different judicial districts, from the most active centers to those still adjusting to the change in approach.
On a national level, the judges’ governing body estimates that at least one thousand seventy-nine sentence reductions have occurred, representing roughly thirty point nine percent of the reviews, along with one hundred eight evictions. The figures indicate a substantial, though uneven, impact of the reform across the country, with some courts applying the new standard more frequently than others and with varying degrees of acceleration in processing timelines.
Looking ahead, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court is slated to convene a monographic plenary session from June 6 to June 7 to establish criteria for how criminal courts will interpret and apply penal reform provisions. This gathering marks a deliberate effort to harmonize practices across jurisdictions and to clarify the enforcement framework under the new law.
For the first time, the Supreme Court will scrutinize whether courts have properly implemented the Comprehensive Sexual Freedom Guarantee Act within criminal proceedings. This step signals a broader attempt to ensure that reforms in sexual autonomy and protection are consistently reflected in judicial decisions, rather than interpreted unevenly at the regional level.
Supreme Court judges will undertake this examination not merely to refine existing criteria but also to consolidate a coherent doctrine. Already, more than twenty appeals have been filed challenging review decisions, underscoring the significance of the issue and the need for authoritative guidance that can reduce variability across the system.