Endless emergency at the Paola district house, in the province of Cosenza. The CISL FNS launches a new alarm: massive deficiency of penitentiary police staff and continuous critical episodes put the safety of the institute and the health of operators at risk.
According to what was reported by the union, 29 agents and assistants compared to the organic plant, to which are added further absences due to convalescences (5 units), accidents at work (4), benefits provided for by law 151/2001 (9) and next retirements, would be missing. A picture that, in fact, drastically reduces the effective number of operational agents within the prison.
The CISL underlines how the agents, despite the great sense of duty, are forced to cover multiple places at the same time: only one operator for two prison sections in day rounds and, often, a single employee in the night for all sections, supported only by the surveillance coordinator. A situation that translates into 12 -hour massacred shifts, weekly rests also skipped for two consecutive weeks and calls in service during the holidays.
To further complicate the picture, the presence of psychiatric and imprisoned prisoners difficult to manage, transferred by other institutes of Southern Italy for disciplinary reasons. A coexistence that generates constant tensions: just a few hours ago – reports the CISL – a superintendent was attacked by a prisoner with mental problems for futile reasons.
The union speaks of a “powder keg ready to explode” and asks for immediate interventions: the sending of new staff, the displacement of psychiatric prisoners towards suitable structures and the transfer of those considered difficult to contain.
“The situation is now unsustainable and dangerous – he denounces Andrea Lombardo, CISL FNS territorial coordinator -. We cannot continue to ignore the inhuman conditions in which our agents work, real heroes forced to guarantee order and safety in prohibitive conditions. We demand concrete and timely answers, otherwise we will adopt every useful union action and signal the story to the competent authorities ».
The mobilization of the CISL FNS is permanent: without an inversion of course, the hold of the Paolana penitentiary structure is seriously risks collapsing.