Tragedy in the prison of Uta where a 57-year-old Sardinian prisoner - Paolo Ledda, involved in various news cases - was found dead in a cell of the Intensive Assistance Service.

"This episode, the outlines of which will also be clarified through a possible necropsy report ordered by the Magistrate, recalls - writes the association "Socialismo Rights Reforms" in a note - the urgency of a prison health system adequate to the needs of women and men deprived of freedom. It is true that the entire regional health system is showing all the shortcomings that have accumulated over the years, but it is equally true that the shortcomings have become emergencies and there is no real integration between the diagnostic and therapeutic department of the Prison, structured and managed by the ASL and AREUS, with that of similar hospital departments. The Medical Director of Cagliari-Uta has the same degree of competence and responsibility as a fellow manager but in order to arrange hospitalization he must ask permission and so also for any surgery, unless the patient-inmate is on the verge of death . Not to mention the living conditions of those suffering from psychiatric disorders. People who, if they are not in solitary confinement, remain unarmed in cells with psychotropic drugs".

Furthermore, the association continues, "in the prison of Cagliari-Uta (with 575 prisoners over the regulatory limit of 561 places), where the heat even melts the clothes on and restricts breathing, there has been a lack of ophthalmology and dermatology specialists since January , gynecology and neurology, from 4 months. It is not possible - underlines Maria Grazia Caligaris - to continue to ignore this situation thinking that it can be compensated for with hospital visits. Accompanying an inmate to a hospital requires the authorization of the Surveillance Judiciary and/or a Judge, the need for the availability of the escort, conditioned by the small number of agents, the result is that people with the need for checks for important pathologies risk to get worse. The absence of being able to access a specialist visit as in the case of gynecology and/or dermatology and/or neurology and/or ophthalmology exasperates the souls of those who feel abandoned with rash reactions. So far, despite the commitment of the regional councilor Carlo Doria, not even the opening of a hospital penitentiary department has materialized. In short - concludes Caligaris - we express our closeness to the family of the deceased prisoner but we once again draw attention to a prison health system to be reorganized".

(Unioneonline/ss)

© Riproduzione riservata