Teramo: North African prisoner attempts to escape from hospital

Last night, a North African inmate attempted to escape from the “Mazzini” hospital in Teramo. This was announced by the secretary of the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union Giuseppe Pallini.

Firm stance taken by the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union after the attempted escape of a prison inmate from the TERAMO hospital. Giuseppe Pallini, secretary of the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union, reconstructs the event:

“This morning, around three o’clock, a North African inmate recently transferred from another institution, guarded at the Teramo hospital, after a scuffle with the escorting police personnel attempted to escape by throwing himself from the window of the room on the first floor. Falling disastrously to the ground, the man suffered a broken foot and was subsequently operated on.”

Pallini expresses SAPPE’s public applause to the Penitentiary Police staff assigned to the escort who avoided the occurrence of a serious critical event with extreme professionalism. By now even the escape attempts of prisoners, whether they occur from hospitals, courts or penal institutions, are becoming a mere statistic” and highlights that “the event was particularly critical because it took place in a hospital in the presence of others hospitalized, medical and healthcare personnel, but it was best managed by the Penitentiary Police, who pay heavily in terms of stress and operations for these serious and continuous critical episodes. Attacks, scuffles, injuries to staff, as well as brawls and attempted suicides, are unfortunately commonplace. It is important and urgent for us to envisage a new custodial model.

“Yesterday, however, in the Catrogno prison the timely intervention of the police prevented another prisoner, also a foreigner, from taking his own life, confirming the operational critical issues that the Blue Basques of the Corps have to deal with on a daily basis”, concludes Pallini. “We are talking about policemen who serve in sections at the limit (and beyond…) the minimum conditions of healthiness, who are forced to work hours and hours of overtime every day to cope with institutional tasks, who do not even have the tools useful to guarantee their own physical safety, such as the taser”, highlights SAPPE general secretary Donato Capece. Which once again calls for “urgent measures”, starting with “a tightening of sentences for prisoners who attack Penitentiary Police personnel during their stay and serving their sentences in prison” and the “expulsions of all foreign prisoners in Italy , often protagonists of more serious critical events in prison”. “We need a strong and clear presence of the State, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, continues the trade unionist, who appeals to the leaders of the DAP 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 evident presence of the State, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, concludes the SAPPE leader.