The Italian government “acted in a one-sided and arrogant manner, treating Sardinia like the Italian Cayenne,” said Alessandra Todde, Sardinia’s governor.
The official, referring to a former penal colony off the coast of French Guiana nicknamed “Devil’s Island”, accused the government of ignoring her objections and not allowing her to “participate in decisions that directly affect” Sardinia, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
Eighty-eight maximum-security prisoners arrived on the island over the weekend, The Times reported. They are among “746 prisoners held under the strictest rules of solitary confinement in Italy”, bringing the total number of prisoners in Sardinia to 183, a quarter of the country’s total.
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Since protests erupted in February, Sardinians have continued to oppose the relocation of prisoners to the island, but one prison official told the newspaper: “We can’t send them to Sicily because many of them are originally from there.”
“Alcatraz of Italy”
According to The Times, this is not the first time the central government has perceived the island as a favorable location for prisons. In the 1990s, Sardinia “experienced an influx of gangster prisoners” following the government’s crackdown on Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. Many were trapped on Asinara, a small island off the coast of Sardinia, including Raffaele Cutolo, a crime boss from Naples, and Salvatore “Toto” Riina, head of Cosa Nostra. Asinara was nicknamed the “Italian Alcatraz,” and in the 112 years the prison existed until its closure in 1997, only one inmate managed to escape.
The implementation of this process is “the first concrete result of the government’s plan to concentrate harsh conditions in seven Italian institutions, three of which are located in Sardinia,” L’Independentiente newspaper said. Transporting prisoners to the island also required careful logistical planning. Transporting 88 prisoners required two financial police aircraft, as well as “10 military aircraft, 65 vehicles, eight ground convoys, seven ambulances, two drones and 207 officers.”
The prisoners will continue to be held under the “hard” 41 bis program, which involves almost complete isolation, The Italian Times reports. The regime, introduced in 1992 after the mafia murders of prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, is designed to “cut off” contact with criminal groups outside prisons.
The government presented this “Sardinian expansion” as part of a “multi-regional overhaul” of the system, concentrating the most dangerous criminals in regional posts. However, the 41 bis regime has been criticized as it has been repeatedly challenged by the European Court of Human Rights. The initial stages of this rollout are “a test of how far Rome can concentrate its high-security prisoners without sparking new rights disputes at home and abroad.”
Movement of mafia clans
Sardinia, with its “silky white beaches, turquoise bays and terracotta villages”, has worked hard to put its past behind it and “position itself as one of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations”, reports The Telegraph. Asinara, once home to a maximum security prison, became a national park in 1997. It is now “famous for its unique population of albino donkeys.” Local businesses are concerned that this attractive image will be “tarnished” by the government’s plans to “throw hundreds of maximum security prisoners into its prisons”.
Locals fear the island’s culture, once associated with “notorious bandits and convicted terrorists” jailed away from the mainland, could be revived, The Independent reports. As more high-security prisoners arrive, mafia clans may “move from mainland Italy to be near imprisoned relatives.” The risk will no longer be violence but “white collar crime” as authorities become concerned that “precarious working conditions and low wages create an ideal environment for clans.” There will be clear opportunities to “launder illegal money and infiltrate businesses, especially in less developed regions.”
Sardinia already faces one of the highest prisoner-to-resident ratios in the country, and increasing this ratio could overwhelm services. Like much of southern Italy, Sardinia has a “fragile health system and an aging population.” In addition, islanders face “higher inmate health care costs than other parts of the country.” If a “gangster” in prison requires hospital treatment, he will need to be accompanied by “dozens of prison guards” and to accommodate them and protect the public, authorities may be forced to “lock down entire wards.”
