Italy: "Inexcusable negligence" but no charges at Regina Coeli
01 March 2000
On 23 February Rome prosecutor Giuseppe de Falco requested that the investigation into the death of Marco Giuffreda in Regina Coeli jail in Rome on 2 November 1999 be shelved, (see Statewatch vol 9 no 6). The investigation recognised that the death was caused by "inexcusable negligence" on the part of prison personnel. However, no charges will be pressed because criminal proceedings are pursued in cases of "intentional" negligence. The officers responsible for transferring Giuffreda to house arrest claim that they were not informed about the intended transfer until two days after the court order was issued. The case highlighted the bureaucratic inefficiency, inadequate medical treatment and failure to apply the rule of law in Rome's notoriously overcrowded Regina Coeli prison.
Il Manifesto reports that Giuffreda, a successful 36-year-old art photographer, a heroin user and hepatitis sufferer, was arrested while he was buying heroin on Thursday 28 October. He was briefly detained at Regina Coeli before, two days later, being granted house arrest due to his poor health. The prison's director ordered the Transfers and Supervision Unit (Nucleo Traduzioni e Piantonamenti, NTP) to escort Giuffreda home. Members of the NTP claim they only found out about the order on 1 November, and when they carried it out, after two days' illegal detention, they had to take him to hospital.
The prison's medical staff was cleared of any responsibility, although Giuffreda informed them of his heroin use before he had a withdrawal crisis, (Regina Coeli authorities are opposed to making methadone available for detainees). He was sent back to his cell after collapsing, and his medical chart stated that he needed to be "kept under control". His second collapse, at 5pm on Monday, had fatal consequences after staff failed to apply a drip to him in the clinic, and four hours passed before he was visited in Nuova Regina Margherita hospital, 200 metres away from the prison. Inmates claimed that he had been vomiting, struggling to get out of his bed, not eating and breathing with difficulty since Saturday night. The autopsy found that Giuffreda had bilateral pneumonia, which had not been diagnosed and was therefore not treated, and died of a heart attack.
Prison number increase
An explanation for such a tragedy may lie in the overcrowding and state of disrepair which characterises many Italian jails, especially Regina Coeli, where five inmates have died since July 1999. On 2 November, there were 1011 detainees: the Health Ministry says that its maximum capacity is 660, and the Justice Ministry indicates that it is 845. Italy's prison population had grown to 51,814 by 31 December 1999, according to a prison census published by the Parliament's prisons committee. The figure represents an increase of 4,000 prisoners compared to the previous year, and means that there are 9,027 more prisoners than the prison system's "statutory capacity", and 3,617 more than the maximum "tolerable capacity". The number of third country nationals in Italian jails, 13,661, has been steadily increasing over the last decade. The head of the Dipartimento Amministrazione Penitenziaria (Dap, Penitentiary Administration Department), Giancarlo Caselli, has gone on the record stating that conditions in Italian prisons are "dramatic".
Lila (Italian League for the Fight Against Aids) has criticised prison authorities for their failure to implement a law on the incompatibility of Aids within the prison regime, passed in July. Figures from the summer of 1999 indicate that there were 14,264 drug addicts in the prison population, and 1,648 HIV-sufferers. Lila submitted a study to the justice and health ministers, and to Giancarlo Caselli, indicating that 40% of inmates who are addicts continue injecting themselves in prison and, disturbingly, that 7% of these first injected themselves in prisons. In November, the death of Marco Giuffreda resulted in a letter t