28 March 2012
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Italy
Justice minister blames MPs who visit prisoners for prison revolt
in Rome's Regina Coeli prison
On
the night of 17 August 2004, a revolt by inmates in Rome's Regina
Coeli prison, during a three-day protest against prison conditions,
overcrowding and preventative custody that started on 16 August,
saw prisoners cause extensive damage to the fourth section of
the prison, after almost two days during which the protest had
been peaceful. The revolt lasted an hour and a half and reportedly
included the burning of mattresses and furniture, physical damage
to infrastructure, including bathrooms, armoured doors, lights
and waterpipes in one of the sections of the prison that was
in the worst conditions. No one was injured during the disturbances,
after which 40 prisoners were transferred to other sections of
the prison. An investigation was launched in order to identify
the ring-leaders. The prosecuting magistrate in charge of the
case has received a report from the Dipartimento dell'amministrazione
penitenziaria (DAP, Department of Penitentiary Administration),
which accused 24 prisoners of crimes including causing criminal
damage, instigating criminal activity, revolt, resisting public
officers and issuing threats, estimated the damage to the prison's
infrastructure at 9,200 Euros, and indicated that 40 of the prisoners
in the section took part in the disturbances.
Roberto Castelli, the Lega Nord (LN, Northern League) justice minister, who visited the prison on the night in question, blamed MPs who visit prisoners, "who are always the same people", for inciting these violent forms of protest, issuing a veiled threat, "I have the lists". The justice minister added that these actions will "worsen the conditions of prisoners".
Apart from showing a lack of concern for the plight of prisoners
these comments also dismiss the relevance of the alarming prison
death statistics presented by the Conferenza Nazionale Volontariato
Giustizia (National Conference of Volunteers in the Justice
sector), which shows that 500 persons died as a result of ill-health
or suicide between 2001 and 2003, to the Italian parliament's
Social Affairs and Justice Committee on 4 May 2004 (see Statewatch,
vol. 14 nos. 3/4, information drawn from the Associazione
Antigone website: www.associazioneantigone.it).
Associazione Antigone, an Italian NGO that focuses on
the criminal justice system, has also indicated that 52 people
committed suicide in Italian prisons in 2002, and 65 in 2003.
The summer of 2004 has also been particularly tragic, in terms
of deaths in custody, with 13 deaths, including nine inmates
who committed suicide, in June 2004 alone. This issue entered
the political arena with more force than ever after Camillo Valentini,
the former mayor of Roccaraso who was under preventative custody
and suspected of corruption, committed sucide by putting his
head in a plastic bag and tightening it with his shoelaces on
16 August 2004, in Sulmona prison. The case of the mayor highlights
the irregularity of practices in the prison as prison regulations
do not allow prisoners to be allowed into their cells with shoelaces,
noted Stefano Anastasia of Associazione Antigone.
Preventative custody is seen by prisoners as one of the reasons
for the chronic overcrowding in Italian prisons, where almost
56,000 prisoners are detained in facilities with a capacity of
42,063 prisoners. Papillon, a prisoners' cultural association
that operates from Rome's Rebibbia prison, was highly
critical of the political squabble that was taking place and
argued that the revolt was a result of "the tension and
exasperation experienced by prisoners" rather than the result
of the actions of "cattivi maestri" (bad teachers,
a phrase used by Castelli to refer to concerned politicians who
visit prisons, which was used to refer to left-wing university
teachers during the so-called "years of lead", that
were characterised by right and left-wing terrorism). Papillon
also claimed that the revolt was not as significant as was claimed
by authorities, and rejected the possibility of prisoners backing
"hypocritical… de-penalisation proposals that are only
limited to financial crimes and corruption…", in a
veiled reference to attacks by representatives of government
coalition parties against judges who ordered Valentini's arrest.
Following the justice minister's accusation, the Radical Party pressed charges against him for "defamation", and politicians from the Green and Rifondazione Comunista (PRC) also reacted angrily. Paolo Cento of the Greens said that "we exercise our constitutional rights and will not be intimidated", while Salvatore Bonadonna (PRC) argued that it was "shameful" for Castelli to speak of "instigation" when talking of the "human situation of detainees".
Talking of the problem of overcrowding in Italian prisons, Mauro Palma, Associazione Antigone's honorary president, noted that the only solution is de-penalisation. Drawing on statistics concerning imprisonment rates and overall population, he noted that the problem is European: the rate is 100 (1 detainee for every 100 persons; about 60,000 detainees in a population of 60m) in Italy, 144 in Spain and 142 in Great Britain. He explained these high figures as a result of the "culture of penalisation", which can only be stopped by focusing on alternative forms of sentencing to prison. Castelli's viewpoint is different: more prisons are needed, privatised if necessary, and he boasts of having expelled 2,200 migrants who were in Italian prisons thanks to the Bossi-Fini law on immigration. The problem of overcrowding in Italian prisons is an issue that periodically results in protests by prisoners: last year, in June, a measure was passed (the so-called "indultino"), which allowed the suspension of the last year of prisoners' sentences if they had already served over half of their sentence, subject to stringent conditions. The potential impact of this measure on overcrowding were limited by the progressive narrowing of its scope as it went through the legislative process (it was originally envisaged as a three-year suspension applying to prisoners who have alreadt served a quater of their sentence) and categories such as "habitual criminals" or people sentenced for particularly serious offences were excluded).
Il manifesto 18-20, 22, 25.8.2004; Associazione Antigone, Chart on prison death statistics for 2002, and newsletters nos. 11 & 12 (June & July 2004), available on: www.associazioneantigone.it ;Papillon Rebibbia, press statement, www.papillonrebibbia.org, 18.8.2004; Repubblica, 18-19.8.2004.
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