COSENZA – Crackdown to address and – hopefully – definitively resolve the very serious critical issues linked to the lack of staffing of penitentiary police personnel in the prisons of the Province of Cosenza with particular reference to the prison in the Ciminata district, in Corigliano-Rossano, often and often the scene of violent actions of which the officers themselves are the victims.
An important moment of comparison, in fact, yesterday morning in the Prefecture, in Cosenza, between the representatives of the trade union organizations of the Penitentiary Police Staff in a state of agitation, the Regional Superintendent of the Department of Penitentiary Administration and the directors of the prisons of Cosenza and Corigliano-Rossano regarding the situation of severe inconvenience complained by them and mainly due to lack of staff and overcrowding of the aforementioned structures which would not allow the normal carrying out of the institute’s services.
The union representatives wanted to reiterate the serious operational difficulties affecting workers in the sector; difficulties which, as emerged during the meeting, are widely known by the leaders of that Administration.
Some initial reassurances have already been provided by the regional administrator who intervened and showed great availability.
As regards the staff shortage which is common to all penitentiary institutions in the region, he highlighted that continuous discussions are taking place with the General Directorate of Personnel; as far as overcrowding is concerned, the situation is critical in all structures across the national territory, but the detained population is still guaranteed the detention spaces established by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The directors of the two prisons present, in recalling the peculiarities of the two structures, underlined the maximum commitment that is made daily to guarantee, with the available resources, the best safety conditions for the staff in carrying out the institute’s tasks.
At the end of the meeting, the Superintendent made a commitment to delve deeper into the issue of the organic plan of the Rossano prison, as well as to start training staff for the application of the operating manual for the management of critical events. Finally, the union representatives, in thanking for the attention received, asked the Prefect to act as spokesperson to the competent Department of Penitentiary Administration of the Ministry of Justice for the critical issues raised during the meeting to request the adoption of the necessary measures to protect of workers.
