In the last two months our life has changed deeply. Fear for an invisible, deadly and intrusive enemy has added to everyday worry about the future. Moreover, this fear is continuosly feeded by the precautionary measures of social distancing, the ban on unurgent displacements, personal hygene and respirators. Maybe these measures are legitimate, of course they are advisable for healthcare, but they are inadequate to stop fear of contagion. Outwardly, during these months, Italy has switched off herself: only needful activities have been carrying on and prisons, residential houses, hospitals too.
Total institution must go on. In prison, information about Covid-19 spread hasn’t focused on real priorities, but only on the emergency and securitarian side. Our Costitution describes expressly the right to healtcare as fundamental: for this reason, our Government should have token every kind of measure to safeguard prisoners’health from the risk of contagion. But none. So that, alarm, fear, anger for the stop of family visits since the 7th of March and overcrowding have sparked off a chain reaction, led to riots. After the protests, the “war bullettin” grew up from hour to hour, until it has definitively recorded 14 deads for reasons actually unknown, still under investigation. Even if this event can be considered a defeat for the italian penitentiary system, the Minister has tryed to deny all the responsibilities, looking for a “scapegoat” in Mafia or Anarchism. I’m wondering why they haven’t thought at islamic terrorism yet! In this way, surely four deads because of metadone overdose would have been more believable. To resolve this situation, the opposition calls for drones or soldiers to garrison prisons, while the antimafia professional workers claim that the safest option is equipping old barracks as prisons, thundering against clemency measures. The antimafia workers opinion has towered above experts who suggested amnesty or suspension of the sentence. The heigh of this situation has been the replacement of the punishment from detention to house arrest for three 41bis prisoners: the reactionary view of antimafia workers has influenced public discussion on this theme, skipping some important information (as Bonura’s end punishment or Zagaria’s return to jail after the medical treatments). In this way, the attemption has been brought up to “mafia emergency” rather than on the safeguard of prisoners healthcare. But how could old and ill people who have served more than 30 years of punishment under special penitentiary regime of 41 bis posing a threat to public order? It seems to be a pretext for ignoring critical situations such as inhuman and degradating conditions in jail; the death of 14 people; the role of total institution; the absence of any rieducation purpose and the inquiries set up for tortures in jail; the insubstantial misures assumpted to prevent Covid-19 and the spread of the virus among penitentiary staff. Sandra Berardi, Yairaiha Onlus President, an organization which cares about safeguard of prisoners’ rights. 3rd may 2020 from www.palermo-grad.com