The pain of prison. Told by those who punctuate their daily existence with the sounds of armored doors and gates, the cold light of neon, the clamor of pavilions.
To the municipal guarantor of prisoners, Emilia Corea, who visited the “Sergio Cosmai” penitentiary several times in recent weeks, the inmate population described the anxieties, inconveniences and difficulties that sometimes make life unbearable.
«The “Cosmai” prison environment» says Corea «shows major critical issues from an infrastructural point of view. I have seen cells transformed into human tetris, where 5/6 cots are stacked on top of each other, forcing men to live in a dangerous verticality. Getting on or off your bed becomes a balancing act with the constant risk of serious injuries, a constant physical danger. But I found the most violent image in the windows shielded by plexiglass sheets. Imagine the Cosenza summer looming, imagine breathing through a plastic membrane that blocks the air and reflects the heat. It is a device that transforms the cell into a suffocating hood, a choice that denies air exchange and natural light, trampling on every standard of healthiness imposed by the Constitution and the European Court of Human Rights.”
Then a bitter reflection. «I have collected testimonies of a daily emergency made up of self-harm, desperate gestures that scream a suffering that the mind can no longer process. Self-harm is a language, it is the result of an explosive mixture made of overcrowding, forced inactivity and forced coexistence of common prisoners with people suffering from serious psychiatric pathologies, abandoned to themselves. In this vacuum of assistance, the risk of suicide hovers like a constant shadow over every section.”
An alarming picture that deserves attention. A picture that is unfortunately comparable to many other penitentiaries in our country.
