Serious security emergency in the Reggio Calabria prison, Arghillà complex, where numerous attacks against prison police personnel have been recorded in recent weeks. The alarm was raised by SARAP, which sent a formal request for intervention to the top management of the prison administration.

Attacks and overcrowding

According to what was reported by the union, from 27 January to 9 February several episodes of violence occurred which resulted in the injury of nine officers, all of whom were forced to seek emergency room treatment. In the last few hours alone there have been two more attacks, with three units injured.

At the root of the situation, a serious shortage of staff and overcrowding is highlighted which would have made supervision unmanageable: in some cases a single unit would be called upon to monitor over one hundred inmates, a condition considered incompatible with any security standard.

Backbreaking shifts and degraded structures

Staff would also be subjected to long shifts and workloads defined as unsustainable, with direct repercussions on health and safety. The picture is worsened by the state of the structures, judged lacking from a logistical and hygienic-sanitary point of view, and by the lack of adequate technological tools.

According to SARAP, the attacks do not represent isolated incidents but the direct consequence of a suffering organizational system, reported several times without obtaining concrete answers.

The request: reinforcements and extraordinary measures

The union has asked for the immediate dispatch of reinforcement personnel, including through temporary assignments and extraordinary mobility, as well as a review of the staffing plans and the adoption of urgent measures for internal security, in particular in the Arghillà complex.

Also announced was the request for an urgent hearing with the prefect of Reggio Calabria, Clara Vaccaro, so that the situation is addressed as a problem of public order and safety.

In the absence of rapid responses, SARAP has made it known that it is ready to activate further initiatives in the competent institutional and control bodies.