Italy: Concerns over underground isolation cells
01 August 2004
In a series of letters dated May and June 2004, lawyer Vittorio Trupiano tried to raise awareness of the alarming conditions in which some prisoners are held in Cuneo prison in the north-western region of Piedmont. He released extracts from a letter dated 22 May 2004 by Gioacchino Fontanella, a prisoner who is serving life imprisonment under the
41 bis hard prison regime since 23 October 1998 for crimes involving the Camorra (a Mafia-like criminal organisation based in Campania). The
41 bis prison regime was originally meant for people convicted of serious offences involving Mafia-type organisations, although it was extended in December 2002 to include offences involving terrorism and human trafficking as well (see
Statewatch vol 12 no 5).
The letter by Fontanella claims that underground isolation cells are used for punishment in Cuneo prison. He describes their use as "torture", due to its lack of basic medical facilities and unhygienic conditions, including an absence of natural light and a lack of ventilation. The prisoner also claims that he was detained in one of these cells in retribution for having reported their existence to a Cuneo prosecuting magistrate, and that he was injected soon after being moved to this section. He began a hunger strike on 10 May, and wrote that he felt weak, and that the responsibility for anything that may happen to him would lie with "the management of Cuneo prison and the penitentiary police staff". His hunger strike ended when he was interviewed by judicial police officers on orders from the prosecuting magistrate. The judge responsible for monitoring conditions in Cuneo prison subsequently wrote to Fontanella to explain that: "with regards to the situation you raised... I inform you that I have recently seen the single-cell sector that you mentioned, and that I have been assured by the Cuneo prison management that the necessary refurbishment work is set to begin shortly", once the funding for the work (which has been requested as "urgent") is made available.
Filiarmonici website: www.ecn.org/filiarmonici, Letters by the lawyer Vittorio Trupiano, 22, 26.5.04.