Night of riots at the Beccaria juvenile prison in Milan where yesterday evening, shortly after 10 pm, a riot broke out . According to initial reports, there were some injuries .
"Some inmates - explained Gennarino De Fazio, national coordinator of Uilpa prison police - staged a riot by forcing the security devices and reaching the porter's lodge ". It all started with fires that broke out in some cells . As a precaution, explained De Fazio, the inmates were taken "to a common area" and from there, also thanks to an open door "they took advantage of the situation by attempting to escape".
Of the injured inmates, at least eight, "one was taken to the hospital" specifies Aldo Di Giacomo, secretary of the Prison Police Union (SPP). "Another four inmates - adds De Fazio in a note - managed to climb over the perimeter wall, but after hours of searching they were all found within the perimeter that delimits the prison and other offices of the Department for Juvenile and Community Justice". "Thanks to the extraordinary work of the women and men of the Prison Police who were present and who intervened off duty - he added -, there were no irreparable consequences, but there were some minor injuries, including among the officers ".
What happened, like the previous incidents at Beccaria and in other prisons, "is the clear proof of the organizational and managerial failure of the juvenile penal system within the walls - De Fazio is convinced - which is on a par with that for adults. A change of pace is urgently needed that must be dictated by politics , even before the administrations" with the hiring of the missing personnel (18 thousand units) and the reorganization of the entire apparatus.
"We hope that the Ministry of Justice and the Government will make their voices heard this morning with concrete arguments and, above all, that tangible and immediate measures will be adopted. We fear, however - he concluded -, that we will have to listen again to the usual off-key refrains with resounding announcements empty of content".
