The Italian prison system is collapsing and unfortunately there is no doubt about this. Overcrowding, lack of staff and structures no longer adequate to support the load of prisoners, these are the elements that the unions have continued to focus on for years in the hope that the institutions will heed their cry of alarm. For now, however, there are no solutions on the horizon yesterday in Sicily, two prisons found themselves managing two complex situations.
In Ragusa two officers were injured by an inmate who simulated a hanging, in Palermo a minor attempted to actually hang himself in his cell. Two similar situations that once again focus attention on the lack of support and aid within Italian prisons. “Enough is enough, the measure is full. Security within prisons must become a priority commitment“, thus the Civil Service CGIL Sicilia once again sent an alarm signal to the institutions.
Inmates and prison guards continue to deal with an unsustainable situation every day. The forgotten people of society continue to ask for help and yet no one seems to want to give them the attention they deserve. Thus, deaths in prisons continue to increase and the employees of prison institutions continue to carry on alone a battle that is unfortunately too much for them.
Prisons, two officers injured in Ragusa
Yesterday in Ragusa prison two prison police officers were injured by an inmate. The two employees were allegedly ambushed by the prisoner, who allegedly pretended to want to take his own life, so that the officers would enter his cell. Once inside, they were attacked by the inmate who he was brandishing a sharp plastic object.
In an attempt to disarm and calm him, the two officers were injured and needed to go to the emergency room due to their injuries. “It is a situation that has become unsustainable and intolerable – say the general secretary Gaetano Agliozzo, and the FP Ragusa secretary, Nunzio Fernandez – it is necessary to find timely and incisive countermeasures so as not to jeopardize the health and lives of those who guarantee the security service in prisons every day. The Department of Prison Administration – Agliozzo and Fernandez conclude – must take action by planning immediate interventions that ensure conditions for a greater and effective level of safety“.
Palermo, a minor inmate tries to hang himself in his cell
Late yesterday evening, around 9pm, an inmate of juvenile detention center Malaspina of Palermo he attempted to take his own life in his cell. Taking advantage of the fact that fewer officers are present in the detention facility in the evening, while the number of inmates always remains the same, one of these would have created a noose with the sheets of his bed and attempted to hang himself.
“Only thanks to the rapid and timely operational acumen of the prison police together with the intervention of the medical guard the minor was resuscitated, but kept for observation on the advice of the medical teamwhile they were on site the inspector acting as department commander together with the director immediately returned to duty when notified of the critical event” explained Gioacchino Veneziano, regional secretary of the Uil penitentiary police (Uilpa).
The secretary then wanted to specify that “Palermo prison is experiencing difficult conditions” because he has been without a commander for about a week while waiting for the Department to choose a replacement. A lack that is felt but which is made up for now by the responsibilities given to the inspectors who “despite operating with great professionalism and dedication, they are taking on a task that is not relevant to the role“. Veneziano, therefore, renewed an appeal to the institutions because “without further ado, assign an assistant manager who is assigned the function of department commander“.
