Overcrowded prisons and in permanent difficulty between an increasing number of high security inmates and a decreasing number of prison police officers and staff. The cross-section of Italian prisons worries, even more the situation in Sardinia where in some structures the situation risks becoming explosive. In addition to the numbers, there are also growing problems with the protests of life prisoners and the difficulties of "common" prisoners who sometimes have tragic epilogues (a month ago in the Oristano-Massama prison there was a suicide in a cell). "A defeat of the state and of all" was the shared voice and now the debate is reopening.
The painting
The data from the statistical section of the office of the Head of the Prison Administration Department tell that in August there was an increase in detainees belonging to organized crime, restricted to high security circuits. The greatest increase occurred in the Tempio Pausania prison where in a month the inmates increased from 153 to 171 for 170 places. In the Oristano-Massama prison house the regulatory number of places available has even been exceeded. "Overall, the people deprived of their liberty in the detention facilities passed in a month from 1925 to 1961 - commented Maria Grazia Caligaris of the Socialism Rights Reforms association - Situation no less demanding in Badu 'e Carros where they are held in high security regime some jihadists and Islamic fundamentalists. We cannot forget the Sassari-Bancali facility where about ninety inmates at 41bis are restricted to a special pavilion. Inmates as "important", about thirty, are also in Cagliari-Uta ”.
The situation of the penal colonies is different, but they are almost empty. The three open-air prison houses have a total of 613 places but only a third is occupied.
The Massama case
In recent days, a letter addressed to the President of the Republic and to the highest offices of the State and the Dap has left the prison house on the outskirts of Oristano. Signed by 160 inmates (out of 263), more than half of whom are life prisoners, the document denounces the problems of the prison between overcrowding (cells designed for two people, in reality sometimes have double the number of guests), precarious structural conditions and a shortage of personnel, especially of educators (there are only three), which does not allow full use of penitentiary law. The letter also denounced “a lack of health care due to the lack of a sufficient number of hours to guarantee the service of the most requested professionals such as ophthalmologist, dermatologist, dentist. And still few job opportunities, school closed due to Covid. The detainees announce that they are ready to go on hunger strike if no solutions are found.
The drama
And it is in the Oristano structure that in August a common prisoner, a fifty-five-year-old from Cagliari, committed suicide in his cell. But it was only a few days ago that another inmate attempted suicide, promptly rescued by the agents. “What happened unfortunately documents, once again, how much the loss of freedom and the absence of answers can weigh on an individual serving a sentence. A failure on which the institutions must reflect ", reiterated Maria Grazia Caligaris. Even the guarantor of the prisoners of Oristano Paolo Mocci spoke of a" serious defeat of the state ".
Alongside the situations reported by the inmates, there are the difficulties of the prison police officers, who have had a shortage of staff for years. Men who often find themselves in a few who have to manage life sentences, unscrupulous and with nothing to lose. So much so that in the Massama prison (but also in other structures) there have been several episodes of attacks on agents by inmates. But there have also been questionable attitudes towards doctors and nurses. And it is above all people in a high security regime who create the greatest difficulties, “who demand and exploit certain situations. They protest over the limits and constraints due to Covid, but forget that in Massama they have the possibility to call home more than 20 in a month, they can also make video calls ”as the unions underline.
It goes without saying that the intervention and the presence of the institutions must be on several levels, guaranteeing maximum protection and safety for all personnel (from the police to educators passing through doctors and nurses) but also different conditions for prisoners.