At 11.30 the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio arrived in the Turin prison. Whistles, shouts and banging against the cell bars. The inspection of the pavilions by the Minister of Justice was loudly contested by the detainees. The protest was not about one arm in particular. The screams came from outside in a uniform way from all over the prison and were also heard, mixed with whistles, until the
main gate. From here, as the minutes went by, the beatings of the prisoners on the bars began to be heard. From inside came the noise of repeated loud thuds, as if they were large objects, perhaps even furniture, banging against something.
To welcome the minister, among others, were the director Elena Lombardi Vallauri, the guarantors of the prisoners, Bruno Mellano and Monica Gallo, as well as the head of prison health Roberto Testi. The minister asked to meet the prison psychiatrist and wanted to see the documents relating to the two deceased prisoners. Meanwhile, the Turin prosecutor’s office has opened two investigations into the two cases.
Nordio’s words
“Every suicide in prison is a burden that distresses us every time.” Thus the minister began his press conference in the Turin prison. «This morning we listened to all the proposals. We will look for what I would like to call a differentiated detention between very dangerous prisoners and those of very modest social danger. There is an intermediate situation that can be solved with the use of many abandoned barracks and which have less afflictive spaces », he said. And again: «Building a prison is expensive. In my opinion, using abandoned structures with large spaces is the solution on which we need to start working and we are working on it with results that will perhaps be immediate».
“It wasn’t a hunger strike”
To journalists who asked him about the death of Susan John, asking him if something more could have been done to avoid her lack of nutrition for twenty days, he explained: «These are technical details that we did not address today, but I understand that it was a hunger strike or opposition to the government or politics. They were all under very close surveillance.” «The State does not abandon anyone – he added – Unfortunately, suicide in prison is a burden of pain that afflicts all prisoners in many parts of the world and is often unpredictable. It is not true that it is up to those who have the prerogative of life imprisonment. It happens for inscrutable reasons. Alas, I have dealt with many since pm and there is no more unfathomable mystery than the human mind when one seeks such extreme solutions. And I know perfectly well that when there are similar suicidal events, a file is opened and the judiciary is autonomous and sovereign in proceeding with the investigation”.
“Turin in a critical condition”
The minister specified how his visit to the Lorusso and Cutugno prison is not an inspection, “but a manifestation of closeness from the minister and his staff both in this moment of pain, but also of closeness to the management and the prison police who suffers from serious shortages of personnel and operational difficulties which have been immediately, since the beginning of this government, the maximum attention of the ministry». «I arrived here in a hurry by plane – he said – to immediately give a signal of proximity. I have visited many Italian prisons and I have seen the good and the bad. I’ve seen the best of the best and sometimes I’ve seen extremely critical situations. I know that Turin is in a very critical condition and for this reason the visit had already been planned even if it was accelerated».
“I thank the mayor of Turin with whom we had arranged a meeting for some time – Nordio added – and who we then anticipated given the emergency of the facts ». “It is necessary to guarantee the humanity of the prisoner and the rehabilitative treatment,” he underlined. “We are faced with a disparity between available resources and the tasks we set ourselves. The psychological assistance of the detainees is initially entrusted to the prison police officers but then it must be supported by adequate structures, it is always a matter of finding the resources». And then: «The State does not abandon anyone. Suicide in prison is a burden of pain that afflicts all countries in the world and is sometimes unpredictable».
The previous Cartabia
Nordio is not the first Justice Minister to visit the Turin prison in the last 2 years. On 11 March 2022, the minister Marta Cartabia had carried out an inspection in two pavilions of the Lorusso and Cutugno after the launch of the investigation into the torture of detainees which led to the closure of the Sestante (now reopened after the renovation).
On that occasion he also met the mayor Stefano Lo Russo ensuring an intervention, but the problems in Vallette remained. Starting with overcrowding, with over 1400 inmates, compared to the 1100 places available, to arrive at the chronic shortages of the prison police. An emergency situation made even more dramatic by a flurry of assaults, fires and a high number of suicides. Last year 4 people took their own lives in the Turin prison (only Foggia is worse) and this year there have already been 3 suicides, in addition to the tragic death of 42-year-old Nigerian Susan John, who let herself die of hunger and thirst .
Dramatic day
August 11 was probably one of the most dramatic days in the Piedmontese prison system. Which, once again, has exposed the organisational, structural and staffing shortcomings. But also serious “holes” in the communication between the “inside” and the “outside”. Within a few hours, two women, Susan and Azzurra, 42 and 28, died in the Turin prison while a third inmate attempted suicide in Cuneo, but was saved by the prison police.
Susan John starved herself to death
Susan John, a Nigerian citizen, was found dead at three in the morning. She hadn’t eaten or drunk for 20 days, since she entered prison and a note containing a few lines was found in her cell: “If something happens to me, call my lawyer”. The woman lived with her husband and two small children in the San Donato district and she stubbornly allowed herself to die of hunger and thirst in the Mental Health Protection Department, the most monitored place (even with cameras) in the entire section. She had entered prison on the 22nd and she has always refused therapies, supplements and even emergency hospitalization on the occasion of the 118 intervention. It was not a hunger strike and she never staged protests. Susan simply decided to “shut down” and, amazingly, she accomplished her intent in less than three weeks.
The guarantor: “We were not warned”
«I’m really sorry, but we have never received reports from prison relating to this person – says Monica Cristina Gallo, guarantor for the rights of persons deprived of their liberty for the City of Turin -. I was in the women’s section a short time ago and I visited one of the 4 cells where prisoners who have particular problems are confined and no one told me about this woman. I have had no other news from other inmates with whom I have regular contact and since I heard the news I wondered about the reasons. I don’t know the case, but from the little information I learned, it seems clear to me that this woman needed constant medical and psychological support. Perhaps nothing would have changed and perhaps the autopsy will show that other causes have occurred, but at least we would have been sure that we had done everything possible to avoid this umpteenth tragedy”.
Ilaria Cucchi: «Let it be clear»
Since the beginning of the year in Lorusso and Cutugno there have already been 3 suicides and the suspicious death of a 27-year-old prisoner who had inhaled gas from a canister. Susan’s dramatic story, in some ways, recalls that of Antonio Raddi, who died in Turin prison in 2019 after losing 25 kilos. He said he couldn’t eat and, debilitated, was struck down by a lung infection. Prosecutor Delia Boschetto will have to ascertain that the situation of Susan John, mother of two small children, has not been underestimated, but from prison they ensure that the prisoner has been constantly monitored and that she has always refused both treatment and emergency hospitalization .
“This is a tragedy that cannot be tolerated in a country that professes to be civil and democratic – commented Senator Ilaria Cucchi -. A death for which, in any case, the State that had the victim’s life in custody is responsible. I ask for clarity.” Susan John had been accused of very serious crimes, including trafficking in human beings by an organization which, with threats and esoteric rites, forced young girls into prostitution. She had been definitively sentenced to 10 years and 4 months in prison. She would have returned to freedom in 2030, but she has always professed her innocence and since she entered prison, in fact, she has become a “ghost”.
Azzurra Campari, hanged in her cell
Leo Beneduci of Osapp, who a few days ago had denounced that in the Turin prison the agents are called to guard prisoners at risk for health reasons on sight, adds: «The malfunctioning of penitentiaries in Italy is preparing to become the most striking of the multiple contradictions, to the detriment of the weakest”. And Azzurra Campari, 28, was certainly a weak subject, who had to serve a number of sentences that would end in 2024. Petty thefts that had landed her in prison first in Genoa and then in Turin, where she was considered “at risk” , but despite monitoring on Friday afternoon she managed to hang herself in her cell.
«She was a girl with many problems and a complicated life – declared her lawyer Marzia Ballestra, from Imperia -. But she had a big heart.’
The Osapp speaks of the Turin prison calling it a «Dantesque group», while the councilor for relations with the prison authority, Gianna Pentenero, underlines: «The situation is desperate. The stories of these two women require that the shortages of operators and adequate health support in support of fragility must be resolved as soon as possible”.
August 12, 2023
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