A prisoner of Roman origins set fire to his cell in the prison of Avellino. The flames and smoke spread rapidly, forcing the inmates to evacuate the unit. The inmate then tried to attack the other inmates with a rudimentary knife, but was disarmed by a prison police officer.
Sappe, the autonomous union of penitentiary police, praised the personnel present for their professionalism and courage. The union also requested the transfer of the unruly prisoner to a penitentiary outside the region, in accordance with the latest departmental circulars.
The secretary general of Sappe, Donato Capece, stressed that “urgent and structural interventions are needed to restore the right legality to the penitentiary circuit”. Among the proposals, Capece indicated the expulsion of foreigners detained in Italy, the reopening of judicial psychiatric hospitals and the increase in hiring in the Penitentiary Police Corps.
The union also expressed solidarity with the prison officers of Avellino, who find themselves working in difficult and dangerous conditions every day.
The Avellino incident is yet another episode of violence that occurs in Italian prisons. According to Sappe, in 2023 there were over 1.500 episodes of self-harm, over 1.000 episodes of violence between inmates and over 100 episodes of assaults on prison police officers.
The causes of these phenomena are many, but among the main ones we can include the lack of staff, overcrowding in prisons and the presence of inmates with psychiatric problems.
Article published on 14 December 2023 - 14:32
We hope that concrete solutions will be found to improve the situation in Italian prisons.