From the South isolation section of the Pagliarelli prison in Palermo
We are two prisoners who have been thrown into the isolation section “South” of the Pagliarelli prison (in Palermo) without any judicial measure to justify it. We are Carmine Lanzetta (AS3 [detained in “High Surveillance 3” circuit]) from January in total continuous isolation started with the disciplinary isolation for 10 days that still continues, and Davide Delogu, Sardinian anarchist, from February in continuous isolation for reasons of order and security for which we should not do more than 15 days, held hostage with the revenge of total isolation.
Both of us do not bow to the annihilation in which our torturers would have us and fight against the hellish misery of this infamous section to be closed, with the consequent transfer. In half of the section there are the two of us in cells with nothing inside, far from each other. In the other half they put the prisoners in precautionary quarantine and we all use the same shower and the same phone. So we became their guinea pigs. Someone even before us tried to make a complaint to the prosecutor and complain to the magistrate, but these instances are blocked or made to disappear. There is no response to our lawyers’ complaint send via PEC e-mail either; prison administration taking advantage of the emergency of Covid-19 so the lawyers can’t enter the prison to visit us. We are in a section of isolation that had been abolished since 2000 because of the inhumanity embodied there and which is still being put in place. The cells have nothing inside, are deprived of everything: TV, radio, bathroom door, window, rags, brooms and cleaning sticks, hot water with a mini sink always plugged, a walking space that is a cubicle without a bathroom, but there’s no shortage of excrement of any kind, something we don’t dwell on. They inflict all kinds of abuse without being able to subjugate us, however, does not change the antiphon. Those who hold power in this prison are dangerous people, starting with commander Rizzo who feels omnipotent and all the hierarchs who continue with their harassment, like the deputy director who inflicts disciplinary isolation with natural ease, even though he knows in what non-human conditions he leads people. And the director Francesca Vezzana is co-responsible for all this. All this must end and we demand the closure of this section of isolation “South” and our transfer to another prison.
Therefore, from today, May 14th, 2020, we begin the food strike, refusing to go to the cubicles and unworthy walking spaces, trying to beat the bars every day for 20-30 minutes.
Let’s start the strike permanently, for now let’s avoid the hunger and thirst strike in order to keep us strong for when we will lead more incisive forms of struggle, since by limiting ourselves to these we won’t go very far, so that we can face the squadrette [groups of guards specialized in beating and massacre prisoners] that abound here, to get what we want until the end.
Updates will follow.
Prisoners of isolation section “South”, Pagliarelli prison, Palermo
Carmine Lanzetta
Davide Delogu