A 46-year-old inmate, held in High Security in the Thames Ward of the prison Santa Maria Capua Vetere , died today of a probable heart attack.
The news was announced by the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union - Sappe, through the voice of the Sappe union secretary of the Sammaritan penitentiary Vincenzo Berrini who explained: "The timely intervention of our Penitentiary Police Officers on duty unfortunately did not prevent the death of the inmate."
"The health situation in prisons remains alarming, as experts from the Italian Society of Penitentiary Medicine and Health have confirmed on several occasions: the emergency is far from over."
According to the general secretary of the SAPPE, Donato Capece, in a statement, the union's general secretary recalls that, according to a report on "Mental Health and Psychiatric Care in Prison" by the National Bioethics Committee, looking at the types of disorders prevalent among the total number of inmates, the most prevalent are substance dependence (23,6%), neurotic disorders and adaptation reactions (17,3%), and alcohol-related disorders (5,6%).
Followed by small percentages for psychotic affective disorders (2,7%), personality and behavioral disorders (1,6%), non-psychotic depressive disorders (0,9%), senile and presenile organic mental disorders (0,7%), schizophrenia spectrum disorders (0,6%). Analyzing diagnoses by gender, the diagnosis of psychoactive substance dependence prevails among men (50% of men and 8% of women), and among women the diagnosis of neurotic disorders and adaptation reactions (32,5% of female diagnoses and 36,6% of male diagnoses).
Alcohol-related disorders come second among men (9,1% of men and 6,9% of women), and among women psychotic affective disorders (10,1% of women and 4,1% of men), personality and behavioral disorders (2,4% of men and 3,4% of women), and non-psychotic depressive disorders (1,3% of men and 2,8% of women).
"Prisons," Capece concludes, "are increasingly resembling modern-day lazarets from Manzoni's novel. It must therefore be stated once again, clearly and firmly, that the protection and safety of prison police personnel serving in detention facilities must always be the cornerstone of any prison reform, given that the men and women of the Corps perform an essential function on behalf of the community, essential to the safety of inmates and everyone else in the facilities. This reinforces the criticism that SAPPE has always made in every institutional context. Namely, the very transformation into modern lazarets that our prisons have assumed, for many years now, due to the constant and ongoing health emergencies."
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