In voluntary isolation because he fears for his life, an inmate of the Uta prison has been asking to be transferred to the peninsula for eight months. But, according to the association “Socialismo Rights Reforms”, no one has ever given him an answer and no move has been planned.
The man, of Nigerian origin, arrived in Sardinia in 2018 following extradition from Spain in 2015.
"My situation - he told the volunteers of the association - has become unbearable and I can no longer manage my state of anxiety. I arrived in Sardinia, from Naples, at my request because I had learned that here I could go to a Penal colony where I would have worked and helped my family members (wife and two girls, ed.) Who remained in Nigeria. In reality, nothing I expected was true. In 2018 I was transferred to the Alghero prison, where, however, I could not work. Later in 2019-2020 I arrived in Oristano, where I suffered an attack, then in Nuoro and now I am in the Cagliari-Uta prison. Sardinia has become a nightmare for me. I ask constant questions to be transferred but I don't get no answer. I have been in solitary confinement since last October 5th, a condition that weighs heavily on me because I cannot meet anyone, but I feel my life in danger and I am afraid ".
A story that, comments Maria Grazia Caligaris, exponent of SDR, “re-proposes in objective terms the question of the purpose of the prison sentence. The detainee is certainly a problematic citizen, but he is not aggressive towards people. His request for transfer, even if motivated in a singular way, does not appear senseless. A person who cannot find a motivation to remain in a prison and, in this case, in a prison on the island, defeats the role of the institution. Obviously this is a very particular case but it appears singular that an isolation protracted for so long, even if intentional, contrasts with the purposes of the sentence sanctioned by the penitentiary system and by the Constitution. In fact, his social recovery cannot be guaranteed ".
The man, he adds, “is not asking for freedom but to be transferred out of an island which he now deems incompatible for real or perceived episodes of intolerance towards him. Granting an act of humanity by the Department can give rise to a turning point in the life of a person who could really face his rehabilitation process in full compliance with the purpose of the sentence ".
