The March 27, a delegation from ONAC, the National Observatory on Prisons of AIGA (Italian Association of Young Lawyers), went to the “Antonio Santoro” prison in Potenza as part of the “AIGA visits Italian prisons” project which provides access for young lawyers to 70 penitentiary facilities spread across the entire national territory.
The goal is to identify and highlight critical issues hey strengths of prison structures and offer concrete proposals to address the prison emergency in a structural manner.
The delegation, composed of the lawyer. Valeria Colangelo, Onac territorial representative of the AIGA section of Potenza, by the lawyer. Federico Ottati, president of the AIGA section of Potenza, by the lawyer. Igino Cappelli, president of the AIGA section of Lagonegro and the lawyer. Michela Petruzzi, vice president of the AIGA section of Potenza, was welcomed by the Director Paolo Pastena, the First Executive Commander, Giovanni Lamarca, and the manager of the treatment area, Dr. Sonia Crovatto.
The lawyer declares. Colangelo:
“From the visit to the prison in Potenza the need emerged to enhance the professional efforts of the management and all the prison staff for having created a virtuous reality which is not only capable of guaranteeing order and security, starting from the ongoing restructuring and adaptation of the sections, but which above all has the aim of accompanying the inmates on an accurate re-education path”.
They are, in fact, numerous professional and recreational training projects and activities proposed within the Institute (for example the workshop for the transformation of medicinal plants, the pizza making courses, the gardening and theater courses) which aim to encourage greater and better social inclusion of prisoners.
From a healthcare point of view, the clinic was efficient both for the instrumental equipment and for the presence of medical specialists (dentist, dermatologist, psychiatrist and ophthalmologist), elements that contribute to guaranteeing and protecting the health of the inmates.
Furthermore, they appear the suicide risk prevention protocol is also effective as well as the diagnostic therapeutic care path for prisoners with substance use disorder.
However, in order to improve the quality of life inside the prison it is becoming more and more the establishment of the figure of the Guarantor of the rights of persons deprived of personal freedom is essential, of which Basilicata is the only region in Italy still without one.
