Uta, a prisoner barricades himself in his cell and beats the agents with sticks

Serious episode in Uta prison, in Cagliari .

An Algerian prisoner, with precedents for acts of violence in the Udine prison, "came out of his cell with the excuse of phoning his family and self-harmed his body in front of the agents' box, spreading blood throughout the roundabout".

The Sappe prison police union denounces it.

The agents managed to calm him down and get him back to his cell but, immediately afterwards, «the prisoner began to damage the furniture in the room, threatening anyone who came near to death. At the same time, he boiled some oil, razor blades and chilli pepper, armed himself with rather sharp rudimentary sticks and sought a confrontation with the policemen , some of whom, in the containment operations, reported injuries with prognoses from 3 to 7 days».

According to the regional secretary for Sardinia of the Autonomous Union of Penitentiary Police Luca Fais, "the spiral of violence in Italian prisons continues unstoppable, where not a day goes by in which violent episodes and critical events are not recorded".

Donato Capece, secretary general of Sappe, expresses "closeness and solidarity with the policemen" of Cagliari and highlights "how and how important and urgent it is to envisage a new custodial model. The women and men of the Penitentiary Police Corps cannot continue to be attacked or constantly find themselves in situations of high tension without the Ministry of Justice and the Dap adopting urgent measures. We are collapsing."

(Unioneonline/D)