The episode is on Sunday 9 June. The news was announced in a note by the regional secretary of the USPP Basilicata, Vito Messina, who once again raised the problem of staff shortages and the burden on penitentiary police officers of having to operate in difficult conditions and with a prison population to be paid attention to, after the transition of the prison of Matera into the jurisdiction of Puglia. A young prisoner from Puglia, in Matera to serve a sentence for various crimes, had attempted to escape – from what was learned – by jumping over some gates. But the escape did not last long and he was identified and returned to his cell by prison police personnel, during a joint operation which also involved the State Police. The man is back in cell, where he will have to continue serving his sentence. The secretary of the USPP Basilicata, Vito Messina, has announced that he will raise the issue in the appropriate places of the penitentiary administration, urging the adoption of all the necessary safety conditions, given the state of degradation of the Lucanian prisons which are divided into the management between Calabria and Puglia.
THE MESSINA NOTE
A prisoner has escaped from the Matera prison. This was announced by Vito Messina, USPP Basilicata regional secretary. Below is the full note.
From what we learn it seems that the inmate escaped while using the walking courtyard on Sunday 9 June. The inmate would have implemented a daring escape plan, bypassing all safety limits. There will be time and opportunity to delve deeper into the dynamics, which is still uncertain due to the fragmentary information received, but this is certainly yet another episode that exposes the total failure of the prison system, a failure due to the lack of a control room, the structure recently deprived of command. This time, fortunately, there were no injuries, indeed thanks to the skill and promptness of the service staff who immediately started the search, the inmate was blocked outside the structure and taken back to prison.
We need immediate intervention from the central administration in sending a chain of command capable of responding to the needs of the structure. Who entrusts the task of a permanent superintendent in the Puglia and Basilicata districts, unfortunately now shared with the Calabria region, both regions with great difficulties. We ask the Undersecretary for Justice with responsibility for prisons to visit our prisons to understand the abandonment of Basilicata, which in recent months has been paying the price for severe abandonment.
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