Moments of fear and tension in the Avellino prison where yesterday two prison police officers were taken hostage by two inmates and one climbed onto the roof of the prison threatening to jump into the void.
At the same time, a fight broke out among the inmates in the isolation ward. The person who reported it was Donato Capece, general secretary of Sappe, the autonomous union of prison officers for which “Avellino prison has become a powder keg ready to explode.”
According to the reconstruction of Maria Anna Argenio, regional vice secretary of the Sappe in service in the prison of Secondigliano a Napoli, around ten o'clock yesterday morning, two prisoners of Apulian and Campanian origin who are serving a final sentence for drug dealing, took two officers hostage, threatening them with rudimentary knives made from razor blades, and barricaded themselves inside the isolation ward.
Avellino prison agents held hostage freed after a negotiation
A negotiation followed, at the end of which other officers on duty managed to enter the unit and free their colleagues. No one was injured. A few minutes later, in the same unit, a fight broke out between inmates, which was also laboriously quelled by the personnel on duty.
In another wing of the District house, the one where the infirmary is located, a prisoner with psychological problems managed to climb onto the roof threatening self-harm.
Another prisoner, together with the agents, convinced him to desist. There are 520 people detained in the prison of Avellino where 160 penitentiary police officers work with an underestimated staff of at least 50 units.
For some time now, unions have been denouncing the difficulties in ensuring surveillance and internal order due to the lack of staff: often a single officer is called upon to ensure surveillance of several sections which are also located on different floors of the prison.
Article published on 15 October 2022 - 12:55
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