Another escape from the Beccaria juvenile prison in Milan. This time, two young men from North Africa, both 16 and arrested for robbery, managed to escape this afternoon.
According to prison staff, the two took advantage of a moment of poor surveillance to climb over a couple of fences in the “walking” area, the space dedicated to outdoor activities.
They climbed up using a pole as a support and then climbed over a driveway gate at the side entrance of the structure.
The searches
The police were immediately on their trail: the investigative section of the Penitentiary Police, the Carabinieri and the Police. The two were seen taking the subway at the Bisceglie station on line 1, which is located a few hundred meters from the prison.
Who are the escapees?
They are two boys of Moroccan origin, both born in 2008. One of them was born in Italy and has a criminal record for robbery, while the other was born in Morocco and was arrested for similar crimes.
The escape has sparked inevitable controversy. Beccaria Prison is already at the center of a sensational judicial investigation into abuse, and other inmates have escaped from there in recent months: seven at Christmas, one on May 19th, one on May 30th, and another minor on April 22nd.
The words of the Sappe union
Donato Capece, general secretary of the prison officers' union Sappe, stated that "this escape is the consequence of the dismantling, over the years, of prison security policies. Disrupting internal prison security with active surveillance, an open regime, and the absence of a prison police force inevitably encourages critical incidents."
Furthermore, the Sappe expressed doubts about the capacity of juvenile facilities to contain foreign prisoners with more complex criminal experiences and an age perhaps not corresponding to that declared.
