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.
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