«HA, Moroccan, 37 years old, confined in the Ettore Scalas prison in Cagliari-Uta, cannot continue to yo-yo from one end of the country to the other. The man, who underwent 15 transfers before arriving in Sardinia, is almost constantly in solitary confinement due to his aggressive behavior towards prison workers. An emergency situation that cannot be resolved by transferring him from one institution to another." Maria Grazia Caligaris of the “Socialismo Diritti Riforme ODV” association denounced the affair, underlining the «unsustainable situation for the Cagliari penal institution and observing that «the high number of people with mental distress and antisocial attitudes cannot be solved with isolation cells."
For this reason, adds Caligaris, "it is necessary for the Department of Penitentiary Administration to intervene urgently to guarantee the inmate the care he needs but also the safety and serenity of the prison operators".
«The HA case – underlines the exponent of SDR ODV – documents once again the need for care by specialized personnel in alternative structures to prison, at least until the physical and psychological conditions of a problematic prisoner allow him to serve his sentence with awareness . The other aspect that stands out, and which makes Sardinian prisons considered the ideal place to "contain" the most difficult issues, is that while in the other institutions HA stayed for a few days, accessing almost immediate transfers, to the prison of Cagliari-Uta has remained for 5 months. Not because he changed his attitude but because the requests to find an alternative solution were rejected."
«It is clear – continues Caligaris – that since the serious conditions of hardship persist, HA cannot be included in any rehabilitation program in prison. It is equally true that isolation accentuates antisocial and aggressive feelings and that prison is not a place where a person with serious problems can access personalized care. The only solution - concludes Caligaris - is for the DAP to review this man's situation and convince itself of the uselessness of keeping a person locked in a cell by activating the search for alternatives capable of restoring serenity to everyone, it would be the ultimate a person who entered prison to serve a 10-month sentence would be given a life sentence."
(Unioneonline/lf)
