Pd and Civici against the new detention pavilion

by Elena Coatti

The Democratic Party’s resolution to build the new detention pavilion was rejected. The expansion of the prison would house eighty inmates and would also include two courtyards: an area intended for horticultural greenhouses, an external technological area and an ecological island.

Elia Cusinato, the first signatory of the resolution, and Francesco Colaiacovo spoke out against the expansion of the structure. They expressed the current critical issues of the prison in the city council. “The problem of overcrowding will remain unchanged – they say – and would worsen with the undersizing of police personnel”. Also supporting the resolution were Civic Members Dario Maresca and Roberta Fusari.

“Aside from the goodness of the prison model that they want to create – continues Colaiacovo -, it is clear that one model is not good in all situations. Anyone who has visited the prison and has had the opportunity to speak with the prison police officers knows that there is a monstrous crisis among the staff who work in the prison and their presence is highly insufficient and suffering.” The creation of a new pavilion would therefore aggravate, according to the PD councillors, the surveillance activity as well as transport to the infirmary which would remain in the current structure.

In 2012 Ferrara had 500 prisoners. To date there are 344. “We can say that the situation has improved – states Colaiacovo -, but we are still in a state of overcrowding considering that the capacity of the prison is 244”.

According to the deputy mayor Lodi, however, precisely in light of this overcrowding “the only thing we can do today is to authorize the expansion of the prison”. He then states that the pavilion will have a better structure than the current one and that “it is not certain that by increasing the pavilions the staff will not be increased”. But Colaiacovo immediately presses him, specifying that “to date there is no planning of competitions in the next three years”, as well as that to do this kind of work it is not enough to be hired but a training course is necessary.

Maresca replies that “redevelopment is something else” because, as Colaiacovo also says, “the quality of life is not based only on the architectural quality of a structure, we need more educational and social reintegration opportunities. We are not in favor of a bigger prison with more prisoners. We want a real redevelopment of the structure we already have and we want an increase in the staff who work there.”

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