"I, along with my colleague Antonio Nicita, have presented a bill to amend paragraph 2-quater of Article 41-bis of the penitentiary system. This provision, as it stands, identifies island areas," including Sardinia, "as the preferred destination for prisoners subjected to the special regime of so-called hard prison."
Sardinian Democratic Party MP Marco Meloni made this statement, announcing the bill's introduction in the Senate. "It's presumable," Meloni explains, "that the legislator, in referring to island territories, was thinking of sparsely or uninhabited islands, or at least of an equal distribution between the two largest islands, Sardinia and Sicily. In reality, however, the numbers tell a completely different story: the number of prisoners under the 41-bis regime in Sicily is understandably zero today, and it is our region that has been hit hardest and most."
The situation, according to Meloni, "is becoming intolerable. Ensuring security and combating organized crime is a duty. In fact, our proposal does not weaken the special regime established by Article 41-bis. We are simply asking to move beyond a purely punitive approach to Sardinia."
Attention on harsh prison regimes has returned to a high level following the Ministry of Justice's announcement of the imminent opening of the 41 bis wing in the Uta penitentiary (NEWS HERE).
(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)
