He has been in prison for 8 years, despite having a "prison reactive syndrome". And the European Court of Human Rights has recognized the responsibility of the Italian State - convicted - for the violation of the right to health and medical care of Simone Niort, a young man from Sassari with psychiatric problems. He has been in prison since he was nineteen, during which time he is said to have attempted suicide about twenty times. He is also said to have committed acts of self-harm.
" The Court noted the lack of adequate medical treatment and care by the competent authorities, despite the proven seriousness of his psychiatric disorders ," explains Niort's lawyer, Antonella Calcaterra. "It also noted the failure to execute a judicial order ordering the applicant's transfer to a penitentiary facility more suited to his serious conditions."
Simone Niort was arrested and ended up in prison in 2016. Since then he attempted to commit several acts of self-harm and, after a psychiatric assessment, the Surveillance office at the time in November 2022 ordered the Department of Penitentiary Administration to identify a suitable penitentiary institution to host Simone. The error in the failure to identify an alternative treatment path to prison - according to sources that followed the dossier - would have been primarily procedural , because the Surveillance should have asked not the Dap but the competent health administrative authority.
Perhaps due to the structural lack of specific places of care in Sardinia, Simone remained in prison, regularly ending up in a 'smooth' or transit cell so that he could not cause harm to others or to himself, remaining isolated and without carrying out educational activities .
"Although there is no general obligation to release a person detained for health reasons," reports Patrizio Gonnella, president of Antigone, "in certain situations, compliance with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, may require the person to be released or transferred to a care facility. This occurs, in particular, when the prisoner's health condition is so serious that humanitarian measures are necessary , or when care is not possible in an ordinary penitentiary context, making it necessary to transfer the prisoner to a specialized service or an external facility."
(Online Union)