Cagliari
The request to the minister from Maria Grazia Caligaris (Sdr)
“The crocodile tears after the suicide of the prisoner in Sassari-Bancali are useless, and neither are the justifications. Minister Carlo Nordio and the head of the Penitentiary Administration Department Giovanni Russo decide to send the director of the Sassari prison to Sardinia and to guarantee the presence of the staff”. This is the new appeal launched by Maria Grazia Caligaris, on behalf of the Socialismo Diritti e Riforme association.
“Although a person’s suicidal reasons are often unfathomable”, writes the SDR exponent, “it is certain that the living conditions inside a prison do not help. The feeling of being abandoned is not only experienced by prisoners. Unfortunately it has become the common heritage of all operators.” Furthermore, Caligaris pointed out that “in the face of a university centre, a notable exception for a few, of which they rightly boast of valuable results, there is the norm of profound discomfort for many”.
“Sardinia pays too high a price to the State,” continues the SDR exponent, “making 10 penitentiary institutions and three penal colonies available for 1,000 Sardinian prisoners and 1,200 from the peninsula, which occupy an area of 6,000 hectares. However, he does not get as much consideration on an organizational level. Bancali lacks a stable director and a commander. Even Isili does not have a stable director and the one at Cagliari-Uta has to take on an enormous amount of work. The lack of personnel does not only concern agents, inspectors and superintendents: there is a shortage of administrators and educators. This disorganization has a heavy impact on the activities and management of people deprived of their liberty, favoring a climate that is sometimes of rebellion but more often of demotivation, resignation and desperation”.
“Suicidal episodes are commonplace in prisons,” underlines Maria Grazia Caligaris, “the use of psychotropic medicines is no longer enough to contain them. In Sardinia there is a high percentage of people with mental problems who require alternative spaces. The Department must also think about this, creating the correct synergies with the Region. The suicide of a 52-year-old man, close to Easter, cannot be a new ‘case’ to add to a dramatic list. A review of the system is needed so that each component, including prisoners and their families, can enjoy their rights. Only then will we be able to say that a self-harming act with extreme consequences was truly not foreseeable.”
The news of the suicide of an inmate in Bancali was broken yesterday by the Autonomous Union of the Penitentiary Police, which once again denounced the lack of psychologists and psychiatrists in penitentiary institutions.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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