Ragusa – The appeal is from the penal chamber of the Iblei, and is signed by the lawyer Nunzio Citrella: “There is a cry for help coming from the Italian prisons, a cry suffocated by the gas canisters, by the ties tightened around the necks of the prisoners, a cry hidden by walls so high and controlled as to allow those who pass by to think of something else, not to try to look beyond them. As with the death sentences described in the Bible, we moderns also designate places for penal execution they are “outside the walls” of the City. Thus the prison walls create two worlds destined to ignore each other, making it impossible for those outside to imagine themselves inside and for those inside to imagine themselves outside. Humanity, however, pushes us to look beyond the hedges, to place our senses inside those walls, to smell the smell of the overcrowded cells, the crumbling between the fingers of old and worn plaster, the light filtered by bars, the deafening noise of iron doors closing violently behind. We Lawyers of the Union of Italian Criminal Chambers see beyond the prison hedge every day, we listen to the cry of the prisoners every day and it is so strong in our minds that it no longer allows silent observation; something needs to be done, something needs to be done immediately, something needs to be done together. Together because, if interest in prisoners derives from a sense of humanity, disinterest can only be inhumane. Humanity is precisely the sense that unites us and allows us to put into practice a concept of “togetherness” which otherwise risks becoming a mere slogan: Lawyers, Penitentiary Police, Prosecutors, Judges, Politicians, Judicial Offices, Clergy, world of Associationism! Let us listen to that cry of suffocated pain that is inside the cells and let us move our cry of humanity towards the entire society.
We will do it next July 2nd in Ragusa in Piazza San Giovanni, from 5pm to 8pm with the Oratory Marathon announced by the Union of Criminal Chambers which includes a stop in Ragusa; come and have your say, all I ask is to talk about it.”
