Perugia: prisoner attempts suicide, attacks officers and tries to escape | Sappe requests an inspection

First he tried to hang himself in his cell and attacked the policemen who intervened to save him, then, taken to hospital, he attempted to escape in vain, blocked by the Penitentiary Police escort. The protagonist is a foreign prisoner, as reported by Fabrizio Bonino, national secretary for Umbria of the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union.

“The man, of Tunisian nationality and already responsible in the morning for acts of violence towards the Penitentiary Police personnel of the Capanne institute, yesterday staged a hanging to get out of the cell, but when the police intervened a scuffle, following which four policemen ended up in hospital with a five-day prognosis each. Then in the afternoon, while he was being taken to the local hospital for medical checks, he attempted to escape. Specifically, the North African, feigning a faint, attacked the escort agents on translation duty at the Perugia hospital and fled. Only following the providential intervention of the officers, who suffered several wounds from the blows and bites perpetrated by the inmate who also spat in the faces of the Penitentiary Police operators, were they able to stop the subject and take him back to the institution.”

A shocking situation,”of absurd violence” reports Bonino, who had already had a prologue on Saturday when “an officer on duty at the Perugia prison, together with the Superintendent on duty, was attacked by a prisoner of Tunisian nationality because he had seen them steal a bucket of alcohol obtained from an unauthorized macerated fruit mixture. In particular, by throwing a wooden stool supplied with the cell at one of them and subsequently, when the officers attempted to block him, the subject twisted the hand of one of them for whom he was given a ten-day prognosis”, underlines the trade unionist.

Hence the request for a ministerial inspection, which highlights the particular shortage of police personnel and the operational complexity of Capanne: “for this reason, the first Union of the Corps, the SAPPE, returns to ask for a ministerial inspection to understand if all the elements for the safety of the men and women of the Penitentiary Police are considered”, concludes Bonino.

“The overall picture of yet another critical event highlights, more than a thousand words, the high tension of Umbrian prisons”,points out the general secretary of SAPPE Donato Capece, who addressed expressions of closeness and solidarity to the injured Capanne Agents. “In the year 2023, in Umbria, there were 257 fights and 25 injuries, 283 acts of self-harm, three suicides and 37 attempts foiled in time. This is to say that in the prisons of the nation and of Umbria in particular (a region which no longer has an autonomous regional administration, in Perugia, due to an unfortunate political choice of previous governments, and has now been co-opted by Tuscany…) it is needed, strong and evident, the presence of the State, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, continues the SAPPE leader, who appeals to the DAP leaders to create the conditions “to restore order and security, truly implementing that zero tolerance towards those violent prisoners who, even in prison, are convinced that they can continue to commit crimes with absolute impunity!”. “We need strict rules to restore order and security in prisons, truly implementing that zero tolerance towards violent inmates who, even in prison, are convinced that they can continue to commit crimes with absolute impunity! Here We need the strong and obvious presence of the State, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, concludes Capece.