A high security prisoner, a former justice collaborator, attacked a prison police officer inside the Taranto prison yesterday. This was announced by the FP CGIL, specifying that “the agent was surprised from behind while opening a cell, but fortunately, despite the few policemen present on duty at that moment, the timely intervention of the surveillance inspector and the commander of department prevented more serious consequences.”
The agent was taken to hospital where the doctors, as far as we know, found several wounds and a fractured vertebra. For Mimmo Sardelli, general secretary of the FP Cgil Taranto, “the situation that has occurred is the direct consequence of inadequate decisions by the central administration and the Ministry of Justice, which have opted for a reduction in organic plants in penitentiary institutions, worsening the conditions of already extreme work for the staff”.
The agents, he underlines Luca Lionetti of the FP CGIL Penitentiary Police, “are forced to work exhausting shifts, well beyond the 6 hours scheduled, in an organizational model that does not guarantee the minimum levels of safety.
The critical issues also extend to the healthcare area, making daily working conditions unsustainable”. This episode, however, states Mirko Mannanational coordinator of the FP CGIL Penitentiary Police, “demonstrates the urgency of a radical reform of the prison system. It is essential that the government intervenes with immediate decisions to re-establish the safety and effectiveness of the penitentiary service. The needs of the staff and national security they can no longer be ignored.”
