All the trade unions, representing the workers of the Penitentiary Police, from today proclaim the state of agitation of the staff who work within the penitentiary institutions for adults and minors. All prisons in Lombardy are going through a very critical period resulting from the very serious and chronic shortage of Penitentiary Police personnel in all roles. The figure of prison overcrowding, in addition to being alarming, is another critical factor, in fact there are almost 9,000 prisoners, with an ever-increasing trend – almost three thousand more than the regulatory capacity which stands at 6,154 beds – with a percentage that the highest in the entire nation is expected at 145%. This leads to an increase in critical events every day, such as insults, threats and even serious assaults, fires and attempted riots as well as acts of violence between prisoners, acts of self-harm and/or escape attempts and even, unfortunately, suicides. .
Despite the various trade union requests made towards the Regional Department of the Penitentiary Administration to date, these trade union organizations have not seen any adoption of measures aimed at alleviating the discomfort of the policemen or deflationary measures towards the large inmate population which within it includes numerous subjects with mental fragility, psychiatric disorders, drug addicts, pharmacophiliacs, subjects not accustomed to respecting the rules, extremely violent subjects etc…
The OO. SS. they publicly denounce a lack of, if not absent, attention on the part of the Administration to the protection of the safety and security of police officers; compression of individual rights such as revocations and/or deferrals of weekly rest periods or failure to grant ordinary leave. Penitentiary Police personnel is forced to to cover more service positions, creating an additional workload and responsibility with inevitable repercussions on the quality of the work carried out, creating situations of high stress, with shifts that can reach up to twelve working hours a day, without then being recognized for overtime work, which inevitably going to invalidate the effectiveness and efficiency of their action as well as actually compromising the main factors to be insured inside prisons which: order, discipline and security.
The policemen in Lombard prisons are literally exasperated, exhausted and unmotivated, carrying out their institutional mandate in absolutely precarious and unsafe conditions, managing hundreds of inmates, occupying more service positions and taking on a greater workload of responsibility but also of stress. work and psychophysical. Every day, with these conditions, they fear for their physical safety and from the numerous attacks which have forced several dozen policemen to resort to the care of the emergency rooms, receiving numerous days of prognosis which constitute a further absence from service of the unfortunate victims attacked.
Even the translation services for prisoners from institutions to other places, due to the very serious shortage of staff, are carried out under stock, compromising the safety of the service itself.
The aforementioned problems will inevitably worsen as the summer holiday plan approaches and therefore with the further decrease in the number of policemen present within the detention departments already reduced to a minimum.
I am sorry to have to highlight a form of inertia on the part of politicians but mainly of the Regional Penitentiary Administration in not having adopted serious and urgent measures so that in Lombardy the minimum and acceptable working and safety conditions are created within all penitentiary institutions for adults and minors and therefore alleviate as much as possible the numerous inconveniences of policemen and women and also improve the detention conditions of the detainees which, consequently, have a negative impact on the staff.
The aforementioned conditions in which the Lombard penitentiary institutions find themselves today have led all the trade union organizations to take a harsh stance towards the Administration guilty of having “abandoned” the fate of the Lombard prisons to their fate by proclaiming a state of agitation. They do not exclude forms of public protest to raise awareness among politicians, the administration and civil society.
SAPPE – SINAPPE – OSAPP – UIL Penitentiaries – USPP – CISL FNS – FP CGIL
- Greco M. Di Sciacca L. Cascino S. Gervasi U. Di Stefano F. Trovè C. Lo Presti
