Four
prison police officers
were taken to the hospital after being
intoxicated
last night by the smoke caused by the flames set in the cells by some inmates of the Beccaria juvenile institute in Milan, after seven inmates had escaped.
Three have already been taken, one of these has been convinced by his parents.
The agents are 25, 26, 27 and 34 years old and have all been taken to the San Carlo hospital, none in serious condition.
"I will be there today to meet the director, to understand how to make not only the juvenile prison of Milan more secure but also all Italian prisons because too often there are violent episodes": the Minister of Infrastructure and Deputy Prime Minister
Matteo Salvini
thus announced his presence at the Beccaria.
Salvini also wanted to give his "solidarity to the wounded and intoxicated agents".
Don Gino Rigoldi
, historic chaplain of the Beccaria juvenile institute, is convinced of this: "They'll call me, I'll bring them back".
In front of the prison where seven prisoners escaped yesterday, the former chaplain of the institute hopes that this story will "give a jolt" to the Ministry for a prison in which "a warden has been missing for 20 years and there have been jobs for 16".
In fact, the boys escaped taking advantage of the structures of some works in progress.
In the juvenile prison of Milan, the president of the Juvenile Court Anna Maria Gatto
arrived
with a surveillance magistrate.
The fire started in some cells was put out by firefighters.
Moments of tension are recorded when the reporters approached the perimeter of the penitentiary institution, and some inmates shouted "journalists of m..." from the windows.
The seven young inmates of the prison, perhaps taking advantage of work in progress for some time in the penitentiary or the reduced ranks of the penitentiary police on Christmas day, escaped yesterday around 4.30 pm, it would seem through a hole in the wall, two of them have already been returned to the penitentiary.
One handed himself in. A sweeping search is underway for the other four.
In the hours following the release of the seven boys who are all between 17 and 19 years old, in some cells of the same penitentiary, other inmates set fire to the mattresses.
Due to the seriousness of the escape, all the available agents have returned to service, and tomorrow the heads of the Department of Juvenile Justice are arriving, sent from the ministry of Via Arenula, including the director general
Giuseppe Cacciapuoti
who will begin to investigate how it is such a sensational escape could have taken place.
Lega leader Matteo Salvini said he was "bewildered" by this leak.
Even for the undersecretary of justice Andrea Ostellari, a Northern League senator, the evasion "is disconcerting".
"There is really no more room for chatter or generic statements of 'bewilderment'. Beccaria was a model prison. It was so in the past, in a now remote past. There hasn't been a Director for almost twenty years, and there he got away with 'acting'. For about fifteen years there has been work in progress, which never ends": The mayor of Milan
Giuseppe Sala
wrote it on Fb after the escape, recalling having done it together to don Gino Rigoldi "continuous reminders to the Governments that have followed one another to deal with this now all too evident problem".
"We are in contact with the director of the prison - added Ostellari - to find out more about the ways in which the fact occurred. I thank the prison police department, who promptly returned to service in its entirety, the NIC and the other police forces who immediately started an intense search for the escaped prisoners. I will visit the institute in person. What happened must not be repeated. Effective and immediately available solutions must be identified to avert similar episodes".
In juvenile institutions, for reasons also connected to penitentiary overcrowding in prisons, the age of the prisoners - recalls the secretary of Uilpa Gennarino De Fazio - "can reach up to 25 years".
"
Many of the problems affecting prisons - underlines the trade unionist - are also found in penal institutions for minors.
In particular, the cases of attacks on operators, riots and, as in this case, evasion are rapidly increasing.
This is evidently attributable to a series of factors", including precisely "the raising of the age limit". "For some time - he continues - we have been repeating that the criminal enforcement system needs to be rethought and that the Department for Juvenile and Community Justice and the Department of Penitentiary Administration".
"We hope - concludes De Fazio - to soon be able to meet with the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Undersecretaries for the search for a reform path and concrete solutions that go beyond mere proclamations".
"We have repeatedly said that extraordinary allocations in terms of human and material resources are urgently needed, but also the modification of the prison model that is currently bankrupt because it is devoted to a sort of self-management by the prisoners left to idle all day inside the prison sections", says Giuseppe Moretti, secretary of the Uspp, another trade union acronym of the penitentiary police.
Don Gino Rigoldi, historic chaplain of the Beccaria juvenile institute, is convinced of this: "They will call me, I will bring them back"
.
In front of the prison where seven inmates escaped yesterday, two of whom were taken back, the former chaplain of the institute hopes that this story will "give a jolt" to the Ministry for a prison where "a warden has been missing for 20 years and there are jobs from 16".
In fact, the boys escaped taking advantage of the structures of some works in progress.
