Italy: “political action is powerless"

Rita Bernardini. Let’s start with some figures. During the first wave (until June), 284 inmates were contaminated and none of the 189 institutions recorded more than ten positive cases of COVID-19. The updated data, from 19 November, paint a very alarming picture of the second wave: 827 inmates and 1,190 employees of the prison administration, including 946 guards, in 139 institutions tested positive. The coronavirus is now actively present in 76 prisons, eight of which are clusters with dozens of positive cases. These figures demonstrate the Italian authorities’ total lack of policy that might anticipate the second wave.
One merely has to think of the only decision, as reasonable as it was advisable, taken by the director of the prison administration, Francesco Basentini. In his memorandum dated 21 March 2020, he insisted on the necessity of respecting the rule which provides for the governors’ duty to report illnesses and serious health problems among inmates. This rule, in line with Articles 146 and 147 of the Penal Code of 1930, from the fascist period, regulates sentences being served under house arrest for health reasons, in accordance with the prison rules of 1975. That decision led to his resignation. Personally, I was always opposed to Francesco Basentini for his inability to make good decisions, in particular concerning the widespread problem of overpopulation in Italian correctional facilities, but I defended him when he was forced to resign last spring following a media campaign based on false information.
That memorandum served as a pretext to say that he was behind releasing mob bosses from the 41-bis regime. Out of around 6,000 prisoners transferred, a media campaign set its sights on the 374 individuals jailed for offences linked to organised crime, only four of whom were in the 41-bis regime¹.

The vast majority of those released were placed under strict home detention or house arrest because they had serious medical conditions.

It was a question of people with terminal illnesses; those suffering from rare diseases, leukaemia, auto-immune diseases; those with disabilities and bedridden old people. Individuals who, putting aside the risk of contagion and their crimes, should not have been in prison, but instead in a healthcare setting. Cases for which COVID-19 was a sort of aggravating factor.

RB. The spread of the coronavirus is closely linked to overcrowding. And the size of this second wave is considerable: between the staff and the inmates, the number of people contaminated reaches, even exceeds, 2,000 cases. More than during the first wave. Two children, detained in a special unit for children with imprisoned mothers (Istituto a custodia attenuata per detenute madri) in the prison in Turin, were infected.

The prison governors and the surveillance judges who, during the first wave, worked to release about 6,000 prisoners, were aware of the gravity of the problem.

Then everything stopped. Froze. The release measures provide for so many exceptions and requirements that very few inmates nearing the end of their prison sentences qualified for them or will be able to qualify for them. Some measures require the use of electronic tags, which are not available. My assessment, then, is that this is a regressive and reactionary policy which encourages fear based on disinformation.

RB. Political action is more than powerless: it is disappointing and hopeless. I began a hunger strike at midnight on 10 November. It is a non-violent struggle; it is only hope. “Spes contra spem”, or “be hope against all hope”, as Marco Pannella used to say. Through this initiative of non-violence and dialogue, I am requesting amnesty and pardon, and a “special early release” (the release would be extended from 45 days to 75) to decrease the number of inmates and gain the necessary space for distancing measures to be put into place in correctional facilities.

Prisons currently have spaces for 45,000 inmates and yet there are 54,868. Additionally, the medical isolation units, which cannot be inspected, are squalid, dirty, dilapidated and equipped with communal showers.

To better understand the situation we find ourselves in, suffice it to say that COVID-19 entered into the most impenetrable zone of the penitentiary world, the 41-bis, the most severe regime, based on total solitary confinement. Numerous positive cases were recorded in the Milan-Opera prison, and in the Tolmezzo prison, where 161 of 206 inmates tested positive for COVID-19. To date, 500 people have joined this non-violent fight with hunger strikes of one or more days. There are also public figures from the cultural world in their ranks, such as the writer Sandro Veronesi. In the absence of drastic measures to reduce overpopulation, Italian correctional facilities run the risk of being real disasters. Health in prison was already catastrophic before the arrival of the pandemic and has only worsened since.

Convicted persons admitted into the semi-custodial regime and those allowed to work outside of prisons may be granted permissions by the surveillance judge for durations longer than 15 days by 31 December 2020 at the latest. For inmates who must serve sentences shorter than or equal to 18 months, house arrest can be applied, and an electronic tag must be worn. We count around 3,000 inmates who could be transferred to house arrest, and 2,000 in semi-custodial regimes or allowed to work outside of prison who could obtain special permissions and thus not return to prison at night.

In total, that makes 5,000 prisoners who could receive special permissions which could slow the spread of COVID-19 in Italian correctional facilities.

The Minister of Justice, Alfonso Bonafede, announced on Facebook the obligation to wear an electronic tag for inmates who receive, by decision of a sentence enforcement judge, “home detention, with a remaining sentence greater than six months (and less than eighteen months, as provided for already by the legislation in force)”. Home detention is not permitted for prisoners who were “sentenced for Mafia-type association, terrorism, corruption, mafia vote-buying (voto di scambio politico-mafioso), political-mafia electoral exchange, sexual violence, familial violence and harassment, or for prisoners who have been the subject of a disciplinary sanction (or against whom a disciplinary procedure is in progress) for having participated in mutinies or revolts in correctional facilities.”