Prison violence: Former inspector testifies in court: "It was hell in Santa Maria Capua Vetere."

"Total chaos, hell." This is how Raffaele Piccolo, a now-retired prison police inspector, described the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison in court on April 6, 2020, the day of the violent search in the Nilo section that turned into a punitive raid targeting hundreds of inmates. His words were spoken during the mega-trial underway before the San Marino court, involving 105 defendants and now approaching its decisive phase.

That day, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, nearly three hundred officers went into action and, according to the prosecution, were responsible for beatings and assaulting a similar number of inmates. Piccolo was among those who led the group of forty internal officers tasked with initiating the search of the cells in the third section of the Nile ward. In court, he described a situation that was completely out of control, marked by the massive presence of officers from other institutions.

"The outsiders didn't answer to anyone; they were independent," Piccolo said, pointing to the main perpetrators of the beatings as the police officers from outside, particularly from the Secondigliano and Avellino prisons. These officers, as video footage shows, were almost all wearing riot gear, complete with helmets, masks, and batons, creating an atmosphere the defendant himself described as "like a showdown."

The former inspector's testimony echoes that of other colleagues present on duty that day, including then-Commander of the Penitentiary Police, Gaetano Manganelli, who pointed the finger at external units. But Piccolo also admitted that the responsibility didn't lie exclusively with those from outside. "Even some of my men were transported by outsiders," he stated, acknowledging that there were internal officers who committed violence against inmates.

In the tense atmosphere in the courtroom, his testimony contributed to the image of a day marked by a deep rift within the prison police force itself, between those who attempted to maintain control and those who, according to the accusations, acted without orders and without restraint. This picture further accentuates one of the darkest chapters in the recent history of the Italian prison system.