A tragedy waiting to happen in a judicial and penitentiary system that still fails to adequately manage inmates with mental health problems.
He was supposed to be under guard and kept under surveillance after committing self-harm in prison, undergoing compulsory medical treatment (TSO), and being admitted to the Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment Service (SPDC) at the San Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Naples. Yet Antonio Meglio, the 39-year-old who attacked a female lawyer in the Vomero neighborhood of Naples on March 5, managed to elude surveillance and hang himself in the ward bathroom.
The 39-year-old law graduate committed suicide on the evening of March 5th by holding a 32-year-old lawyer hostage at knifepoint on a public bus with a sheet tied around his neck.
The tragic epilogue occurred yesterday evening, March 9, around 23 pm, after a long day in which the investigating judge of the Naples Court had validated his arrest and ordered his pre-trial detention in prison.
The news likely shocked Meglio, who had already committed several acts of self-harm in Poggioreale prison, for which the prison administration had ordered his transfer first to the emergency room of the Ospedale del Mare and then to the ward of San Giovanni Bosco, under arrest.
It was precisely his serious mental health issues that prompted lawyer Gianluca Sperandeo yesterday to ask the investigating judge to admit him to a psychiatric facility rather than detain him for kidnapping and assault. Antonio Meglio's medical history was well known, and his already critical mental condition was apparently aggravated by an attempted fraud and threats. For this reason, he was armed on the evening of March 5th when he threatened and injured his lawyer on the bus.
Meglio had documented the scam against him and the threats in great detail on a pen drive, and on March 5th he had even attempted to file a complaint, but without success.
Perhaps he wanted to make a sensational gesture that evening, to then attract the attention of Prosecutor Gratteri. He had also tried to slit his wrists with that same flash drive: the memory was confiscated at that time. Not only that, but on more than one occasion during his days in prison he had violently banged his head against the wall, causing injuries.
A series of actions that all pointed in the same direction: that Antonio Meglio could commit irreparable acts of self-harm, which occurred at 23 pm last night, March 9, when the 39-year-old hanged himself with a sheet in the bathroom of his hospital room.
"This is yet another tragedy foretold, the result of the bankruptcy of the REMS following the closure of the OPGs. As a union, we have been denouncing for years the serious problems related to the management of psychiatric patients held in prisons, subjects often incompatible with the ordinary detention regime."
Thus, the USPP union, with President Giuseppe Moretti and Regional Secretary Ciro Auricchio, commented on the suicide of 39-year-old Antonio Meglio. "The prison police," the two union representatives emphasized, "cannot manage these individuals without adequate tools, adequate healthcare, and support systems. After the mistaken closure of the OPGs and the introduction of the REMS, the system should have guaranteed the management of these individuals."
According to Moretti and Auricchio, however, "the current situation reveals a total failure, with long waiting lists and available places that are largely insufficient compared to the actual location needs, moreover in places that are difficult to reach, given that no REMS has been planned in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most crowded areas in Italy."
"All these dysfunctions impact the work of the Penitentiary Police," the USPP emphasizes, "who must address this emergency in prisons without support tools, with situations of adequate support that require appropriate specialized treatment programs, and which should be addressed by the regional public health system. Instead, they remain in prisons, completely managed by the Penitentiary Police, who helplessly tolerate these dysfunctions." "Both the number of psychiatrists and the hours assigned to these professionals," the USPP concludes, "are insufficient given the high number of psychiatric inmates present in Campania's prisons."
Antonio Meglio's body has been seized by the judiciary, which will likely now launch an investigation to shed full light on this dramatic affair and any potential responsibilities.
It's difficult to comment, but the situation seemed to have continued for years, with extremely long waiting lists and little coordination between hospitals and prisons. Protocols should be revised and a REMS created near Naples, but the bureaucracy and funding weren't enough.
A predicted disaster: the judicial and penitentiary systems were dysfunctional, and psychiatric patients were not being treated properly. Those responsible were not getting treatment, there were not enough doctors, and there was no room for the REMS, so everything ended badly without anyone taking action or properly monitoring.