An escape from the Bergamo prison would have been foiled by the intervention of the policewomen. The news comes from Alfonso Greco, Lombard secretary of the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union. «A prisoner – says Greco – climbing over the walking gate and passing through the fence, he was hiding behind the stairs leading to the interview rooms of the women’s department waiting for an opening to open so he could escape. The officers on duty in the women’s department, thanks to the help of the cameras, despite being busy with other activities, spotted the hidden prisoner and by immediately alerting other staff they managed to prevent the attempt.”
For the trade unionist, «it is necessary to underline how much, despite the chronic shortage of staff faced by the Bergamo institute, the continuous merging of service posts, the workload that we have to face every day, the prison police officers continue
to use with an admirable sense of duty demonstrating seriousness and
professionalism in carrying out their service”. For this reason, he concludes, «the SAPPE hopes that the Administration will positively evaluate the possibility of activating the formal recognition procedures for the personnel involved».
Donato Capece, general secretary of SAPPE comments: «Very good
the colleagues from Bergamo who blocked the man, but the
serious incident brings to light the priorities of security (Often
neglected) that women and men deal with on a daily basis
men of the Nation’s Penitentiary Police. This
attempted escape is the consequence of the dismantling, over the years,
of prison security policies. Dismembering security
internal prisons with dynamic supervision, open regime and absence
of the Penitentiary Police inevitably favors critical events,
which are constant and continuous.”
The union highlights that, in Lombardy, in the second quarter alone of
2024, a sea of critical events between the bars of regional prisons: 225 resistance and insults, 6 collective protests with beatings, 85 policemen injured with prognosis of up to 7 days, others 8 Agents with a prognosis of up to 20 days and even a policeman reported with a prognosis of more than 20 days. Even a suicide, last January, among the ranks of the Basque Azzurri
