NAPLES – Solidarity and an urgent appeal to address the emergency of mental health in prisons: Campania guarantor of persons subjected to restrictive measures of personal freedom, Samuele Ciambriello, expressed closeness to the nurse attacked by two psychiatric inmates inside the Secondigliano prison.
“I join the solidarity expressed by President Vincenzo De Luca to the health workers who work in penitentiary institutions, often victims of aggression, in particular by prisoners with psychiatric disorders”, Ciambriello declared, underlining how in prisons lack of adequate mental health care.
The Guarantor has highlighted that, in addition to pharmacological therapy, in detention facilities adequate care for psychiatric patients cannot be guaranteed, given the lack of specialised personnel. “It is necessary to have a team of psychiatrists, social workers, psychiatric rehabilitation technicians, educators and other professionals. Currently these figures are lacking”, he reported.
Ciambriello then launched a direct appeal to the governor of Campania to ensure that the application of regional resolutions already approved, which provide for the presence of one psychiatrist for every 500 inmates. He cited the emblematic case of the Poggioreale prison, where on over 2.000 inmates, about 600 are psychiatric and 80 are psychotic, but specialized personnel is insufficient: “There are only two psychiatrists present, an unsustainable situation”.
The Guarantor also requested the implementation of the decree n.6 of 25 January 2018, which provides for the establishment of aSimple Mental Health Operating Unit inside prisons, with a multidisciplinary team of health professionals. “This measure is foreseen, but has never been applied”, he denounced. Ciambriello expressed indignation at the closure of the two psychiatric joints di Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi (10 places) e Benevento (6 places), which represented an important resource for the management of psychiatric inmates.
He also recalled that, two years ago, the Regional Council had decided the opening of a new REMS (Residence for the execution of security measures), today again unimplemented. “Prison should be the last resort for inmates with psychiatric disorders”, concluded the Guarantor, asking for alternative solutions and immediate intervention by the institutions.
Article published on March 8, 2025 - 17pm
