More violence in Cuneo prison. Detainee attacks officers with kicks and punches

More violence on Sunday 21 April in the Cuneo prison due to the crazy intemperance of a foreign inmate and, once again, some of the policemen on duty and some of the furnishings inside the structure are the ones who pay the consequences. To tell it is Vicente Santillinational secretary for Piedmont of Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union: «The staff had to deal with the violence of a prisoner originally from Guinea confined in the Intensive Treatment Section where, during daylight hours, the cells are open. Alarmed by noises like metal gates and furniture banging, the duty officer went to the section to check what was happening and was brutally attacked by the prisoner who he managed to get out of the section and, by pushing him dangerously down the stairs, to overcome his resistance and take the path towards the exit on the lower floors”.

«Once he reached the ground floor – continues Santilli – he was stopped by the staff present who, at first, managed to lead him inside the room used for videoconference interviews between prisoners and their relatives». But it didn’t end there. «A few moments later the inmate managed to free himself and throw himself against the structure of the metal detector present in the atrium, damaging it irreparably. While waiting for reinforcements and in an attempt to contain the inmate, the Penitentiary Police personnel were kicked, punched in the face and fingered in the eyes. The subject armed himself with two poles used to direct the passage of people, starting to ferociously hit the windows of the officers’ box and the door of the infirmary, seriously damaging them.”

«As soon as the reinforcement police personnel arrived – continues the trade unionist – the subject attempted to attack them too, but failing to overcome the firm opposition of the officers, he could do nothing but surrender and be taken back to his cell, refusing to be examined because, despite the excitement of the events, he had not suffered any injuries. The same cannot be said of the men of the Penitentiary Police who were instead sent to the Santa Croce and Carle hospital to receive the necessary treatment.”

The situation is particularly serious in Cuneo, but also in Piedmont the prisons are in an emergency situation. The general secretary of the Sappe Union Donato Capece report: «In the prisons of the Piedmont-Liguria-Valle d’Aosta district, in the year 2023, the episodes of violence, threats, insults, insults and resistance to a public official were 836of which 508 committed by foreigners;238 physical attacks on staff (147 foreigners responsible) and 1,075 damages to property of the Administration, i.e. cells and departments destroyed, 301 those involving Italian prisoners and 774 foreigners”.