There is no doubt that Chico Forti’s return to Italy to finish serving his sentence brought joy to anyone who had followed his legal case overseas. What amazes and shocks him are the ways in which he was welcomed, even by the Premier, but, above all, what happened when he entered the Verona prison. Is it standard practice to give the newly arrived inmate a tour of the Institute, as if he were an institutional guest? Tour including souvenir photos, in the premises of the Registration Office, premises defined by some as ‘unprotected’, when we all know that the Registration Office is the brain of the prison, where all the sensitive data of the inmates is kept. We believe we can say with practically absolute certainty that the answer is No, and you?”.
Chico Forti arrives in Italy, the embrace with his mother
Thus begins the open letter from the Board of Directors of the «Sbarre di Zucchero» Association to the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio. «We humanely welcomed the possibility given to Chico Forti to immediately take advantage of a permit of necessity, to visit his elderly mother, and the skill of the Scaliger penitentiary institute in organizing the translation to Trento in the blink of an eye – we read – but we were equally humanly saddened to receive dozens and dozens of testimonies from relatives of ”anonymous” prisoners and ex-prisoners who tell us about emergency permits that were never received, not even due to tragic events such as the death of a parent, preventing them to attend the funeral, despite having already been subjected to months of observation, despite having impeccable summary reports. Rejections which very often are motivated by the impossibility of organizing the translation in a short time also because the territoriality of the sentence seems utopian for a large portion of detained people”.
Chico Forti in Italy, Meloni leaves Pratica di Mare airport by car
And again: «The messages that we continue to receive by the dozens, every day, go in the diametrically opposite direction to what you stated and we would like an explanation of this, an open and constructive dialogue with you. This speed is welcome, Minister, speed that we have always hoped for everyone, because we are firmly convinced that a right, to be called such, must be universal, available to all, otherwise it becomes in all respects a privilege. In Italy there are thousands of prisoners who, if they received prompt responses to the requests submitted to the Surveillance Magistrate to obtain early release, could access the benefits provided by the Penitentiary Regulations, significantly reducing attendance and bringing the penitentiary system closer to the dictate constitutional. In a state that defines itself as civilized, it is not permitted for there to be class A prisoners and class B prisoners.”
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