“A 38-year-old Neapolitan prisoner, ALB, committed suicide in the Ariano Irpino prison late last night. It is the 6th suicide in Campania and the 41st in Italy. The prisoner's body is currently at the Ariano Irpino hospital for an autopsy.
From initial reconstructions it seems that it was a demonstrative gesture that ended badly, considering that it was carried out in front of another prisoner and a group of officers who were unable to enter the security cell where he had been transferred, following a fight, because he was resisting the search of his cell. The prisoner had tampered with the lock of the security cell”.
This is what the Campania guarantor of people subjected to restrictive measures of personal freedom, Samuele Ciambriello, says.
And then he adds: “In prisons a silent massacre is taking place. One suicide every three days since the beginning of the year! Suicides are the product of the distance of politics and civil society from prison, as well as the lack of social and health figures and of listening.
In penitentiary institutions we need more social state and less security state, to protect human dignity. The motivations behind suicides are various and of different nature. In this case, it could have been a mere reaction to an outburst of uncontained anger.
It is essential that the legislator and the Government immediately identify measures, even temporary ones, aimed at easing tension in the prison population. I communicate, as National Spokesperson of the National Conference of Territorial Guarantors of Persons Deprived of Liberty, that on June 18 throughout Italy we will hold public demonstrations to remember the appeal of the President of the Republic made to Parliament and the Government on March 18.
Sui suicide and urgent and immediate interventions are needed on prison overcrowding, a clear message that has so far been betrayed by politics”, concludes Ciambriello.
Article published on 14 June 2024 - 12:43
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