Prison, investigation into management begins – Pescara

PESCARA. The management of the San Donato prison in Pescara comes under investigation. The file is in the hands of the chief prosecutor Giuseppe Bellelli who for some time has started a detailed investigation, entrusted to the judicial police of the prosecutor’s office precisely because of its sensitivity, which could involve the current director of the prison Armanda Rossi (arrived from Pesaro about a year ago).
We are currently working on a hypothesis of omissions of official documents, but it is not excluded that the issue could involve other hypotheses, all of which are in any case being examined by the investigators who have imposed strict confidentiality, even if discontent is now widespread and concerns the prison police themselves, the inmates (who have submitted complaints and exposed specific situations).
The legal profession also intervened in the case and some time ago, with a joint note signed by the Order and the Criminal Chamber, reported the «existence of various critical issues at the Pescara prison which often negatively impact the right of defense of prisoners”.
It is not known whether a specific complaint started the investigation, the fact is that the prosecutor, who is personally following the investigation, decided to open a file, also carrying out an intense, wide-ranging investigative activity inside and outside of the prison. In a historical moment in which the issue of prisons has become explosive, in particular due to overcrowding, but also due to the historic shortage of staff highlighted several times by the unions, due to suicides and continuous attacks on officers, clarify certain events which make the management of the structure opaque, becomes a priority.
In the case in question, we are not talking about a single omission, but about systematic omissions which must therefore be examined in depth to see what actually happens inside those walls and, if necessary, remedy it.
This is the meaning of the investigation which also concerns topics of importance for the lives of prisoners: namely freedom, bonus permits, management of the prisoners’ money. Systematically letting these requests end up in a drawer without following up becomes a crime: and this is what the investigations focused on.
The men of the prosecutor’s judicial police have already acquired numerous testimonies. Inside the prison, educators, some inmates (those who would have lodged complaints), but also staff from the health area, a recently retired penitentiary officer and also staff from the accounting area would have been interviewed. And this is in relation both to the unsatisfied requests of the inmates, whose money is managed by the director and who every time they go out for a permit their requests are drastically reduced, and also with regard to the agents themselves who carry out an activity that is certainly exhausting, dangerous and delicate, always with the utmost commitment, and that perhaps even the travel times for the transfer of prisoners are contested: with checks carried out by the management with motorways, for example, to verify whether there were actually traffic problems on the scheduled route. An all-round discontent in which the Ministry of Justice also seems to be taking an interest. Reports, in fact, would have reached the top management of the prisons and therefore it is not excluded that a ministerial inspection of San Donato will also be arranged.