«From the outside you can't even imagine what's inside a prison. We are not granted any benefits, even though there are many with the right credentials. The situation is collapsing and inside the cells we are crammed like animals."
So we read in an anonymous letter, probably written in the name of a common prisoner and posted in the post office of the homes in via Sant'Apollinare and in the historic center of Sassari.
«There is dirt everywhere, not to mention people attempting suicide, structural and organizational degradation. We ask that our cry of desperation be heard: there is nothing re-educational here other than 600 people thrown into cells doing nothing all day." And then again: «This is not re-educating but inducing a person to commit suicide. We are walled in alive."
Among the recipients of the letter was also Gianluigi Onida, member of the Latte Dolce and Santa Maria di Pisa neighborhood committee. He didn't see who put it in the bottle but he knows the problem: " I collect testimonies from friends and wives of prisoners and it's not acceptable that they don't have the right to bottled water", he claims. «Those who have no money cannot be forced to drink tap water in prison. No one expects to be in a hotel, but to serve their sentence with respect for human dignity."
For Onida «prison must also recover lives, where possible. Offer redemption for prisoners who will return to society, through work and other initiatives. Which, however, apparently are in short supply or even completely absent." The letter ends by giving an appointment to the citizens, on Friday 27 October at 5.30 pm at Porta Sant'Antonio, for an informative exhibition on the prison and the possibility of listening to some testimonies of those who have been imprisoned.
The letter could be the fruit of someone's idea, perhaps outside the bars but with contacts inside, precisely to try to raise awareness of an important issue.
