Young prisoner prevented from committing suicide in Potenza

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 13 - Penitentiary police officers have intervened to prevent a young inmate from committing suicide at a jail in Potenza, the Basilicata regional secretary of the autonomous union of prison police (Sappe), Saverio Brienza, said on Sunday.
    The incident took place on 10 August.
    The prisoner, a 20-year-old Italian of Roma origin, tried to hang himself from the bars of his cell after tying together his bedding, but was rescued by two assistant police chiefs at the jail.
    Brienza highlighted the "shameful" reduction in the number of prison officers in Basilicata prisons, while Sappe Secretary General Donato Capece called on Justice Minister Carlo Nordio to "Set up permanent working group on the critical situation in prisons immediately".
    Prison police personnel are "exhausted by the relentless rhythm of service due to the constant and violent acts of aggression," he added.
    The poor conditions and chronic overcrowding in Italy's prisons has come back into the spotlight after the suicide of two female inmates at Le Vallette prison in Turin and the death of a male prisoner in Calabria on Saturday.
    Nordio has said the solution is to readapt former army barracks as prisons for people convicted of minor crimes.
    However, prisoners' rights association Antigone and unions representing penitentiary police officers insist that more prison staff and non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment are needed. (ANSA).