Article 41-bis prison regime

Last updated

In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations and impose practically a complete isolation upon a prisoner.

Contents

Currently, it is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia-type association under 416-bis (Associazione di tipo mafioso), drug trafficking, homicide, aggravated robbery and extortion, kidnapping, terrorism, and attempting to subvert the constitutional system. [1] It is suspended only when a prisoner co-operates with the authorities, when a court annuls it, or when a prisoner dies.

The Surveillance Court of Rome is the court competent on nationwide level on appeals against the 41-bis decree. [2] The European Court of Human Rights found in 2007 that the regime breached two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2002, 300 Mafia prisoners declared a hunger strike, and in 2022, Alfredo Cospito began a hunger strike which generated mainstream media attention on 41-bis.

Restrictive measures

The system was essentially intended to cut inmates off completely from their original milieu and to separate them from their former criminal associates. Measures normally include bans on:

as well as restrictions on visits from members of the family (once per month and visitors are only allowed to communicate by intercom through thick glass). [3] [4]

History

Article 41-bis was introduced in 1975 (Prison Administration Act, Law no. 354 of 26 July 1975) [5] as an emergency measure to deal with prison unrest and revolts during the Years of Lead (Italian : Anni di piombo), characterized by widespread social conflicts and terrorism acts carried out by extra-parliamentary movements.[ citation needed ] In February 1991, the then Italian Ministry of Interior Vincenzo Scotti referred to the Ministry of Grace and Justice Claudio Martelli 23 exponents of the mafia would be released and enabled to return to their affairs in Palermo. To prevent that risk, the Italian government met during the night and approved a restrictive authentic interpretation of the norm. [6]

On 8 June 1992, after the killing on 23 May of judge Giovanni Falcone by the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia in the Capaci bombing, the regime was modified (confirmed in Law no. 356 of 7 August 1992). [5] The new article stipulated that restrictive measures could be implemented when there was "serious concern over the maintenance of order and security." The aim was to prevent association, and therefore the exchange of messages, between Mafia prisoners and to break the chain of command between Mafia bosses and their subordinates. [4] Following the killing of Falcone's colleague Paolo Borsellino in the via D'Amelio bombing on 19 July 1992, 400 imprisoned Mafia bosses were transferred by helicopter and military transport aircraft from Palermo’s Ucciardone prison to top-security prisons on the mainland at Ascoli Piceno and Cuneo, and to the island prisons of Pianosa and Asinara, where the severity of the 41-bis regime was accentuated by geographical remoteness. [4] After Mafia boss Salvatore Riina was captured in January 1993, numerous terror attacks were ordered as warning to its members to not turn state's witness, but also in response for the overruling of 41-bis system. [7]

Over the years, the 41-bis system has gradually been relaxed, in response to domestic court decisions or the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) recommendations to ensure appropriate contacts and activities for prisoners subject to that regime. When first implemented, section 41-bis also empowered the Minister of Justice to censor all of a prisoner’s correspondence, including that with lawyers and organs of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Court affirmed that under the exceptional regime of art. 41-bis there is an unlawful interference with the right to correspondence ex art. 8 of ECHR, since restrictions to constitutional rights can be determined only by means of a reasoned judicial decision and never by means of a Ministerial Decree. [3] In 2002, the measure became a permanent fixture in the penal code. Amnesty International has expressed concern that the 41 bis regime could in some circumstances amount to "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment" for prisoners. [8] [9]

Luigi Manconi, senator and president of the Human Rights Commission, criticised the regime in 2015. [10] Lawyers for imprisoned Red Brigades militant Nadia Lioce commented that after two decades in 41-bis and because of the restrictions, she had only spoken to visitors for 15 hours over the course of one year. [10]

Mafia protests

In June 2002, some 300 Mafia prisoners declared a hunger strike, calling for an end to the isolation conditions and objecting to parliament's Antimafia Commission proposal to extend the measure. Apart from refusing prison food, the inmates had been constantly banging the metalwork of their cells. [11] [12] [13] After the protest began in Marina Picena prison in central Italy – the prison's inmates include Salvatore Riina, the reputed "boss of bosses" – it spread rapidly across the country, in spite of inmates supposedly having no way to contact one another. Mobsters of different ranks in eight prisons had joined in. [12]

According to American immigration judge Darcy Sitgraves in October 2007, the 41-bis prison regime was designed to physically and psychologically compel criminals to reveal information about the Sicilian Mafia and constituted "coercion … not related to any lawfully imposed sanction or punishment, and thus constitutes torture." The judge based her ruling on the United Nations Convention Against Torture. [14] [15] Immigration and Customs Enforcement successfully appealed the ruling.

European Court of Human Rights

On November 27, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights held that the application of the 41-bis regime breached two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing), and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life). The court did not find against the regime as a whole, but re-affirmed the right to uncensored correspondence with lawyers and human-rights groups. The ruling was in response to a suit filed by Santo Asciutto, a member of the notorious Calabrian crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta, who is serving a life sentence for murder. [9] [16] In the case Enea vs. Italy on September 17, 2009, the court found that there had been breaches of his right to a fair hearing, and to respect for his correspondence. He was awarded some legal costs but no damages. [17]

Alfredo Cospito

Anarchist Alfredo Cospito began a hunger strike against his incarceration under the 41-bis regime in 2022. By the end of January 2023, he had reached over 100 days without food and Amnesty International made an appeal based on violations of his human rights. [18] This led to coverage in the global mainstream media about debates over the efficacy of 41-bis. [19] [20] [21] Attacks on diplomatic offices in Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland were made as solidarity actions and in response the Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said security was being heightened at all missions. [22] The Supreme Court of Cassation initially rejected Cospito's appeal against his prison conditions then set a hearing date for 24 February 2023. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evin Prison</span> Prison in Iran

Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the number of students and intellectuals housed there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison abolition movement</span> Movement to end incarceration

The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation and education that do not focus on punishment and government institutionalization. The prison abolitionist movement is distinct from conventional prison reform, which is intended to improve conditions inside prisons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prisoners' rights</span> Rights of detainees

The rights of civilian and military prisoners are governed by both national and international law. International conventions include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the United Nations' Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leoluca Bagarella</span> Italian murderer (born 1942)

Leoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following Salvatore Riina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy faction, opposing another faction commanded by the successor designate Bernardo Provenzano, creating a real rift in Cosa Nostra. Bagarella was captured in 1995, having been a fugitive for four years, and sentenced to life imprisonment for Mafia association and multiple murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matteo Messina Denaro</span> Italian mafia boss (1962–2023)

Matteo Messina Denaro, also known as Diabolik, was a Sicilian Mafia boss from Castelvetrano. He was considered to be one of the new leaders of the Sicilian mob after the arrests of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006 and Salvatore Lo Piccolo in November 2007. The son of a Mafia boss, Denaro became known nationally on 12 April 2001 when the magazine L'Espresso put him on the cover with the headline: Ecco il nuovo capo della Mafia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatore Lo Piccolo</span> Italian crime boss (born 1942)

Salvatore Lo Piccolo, also known as "the Baron", is a Sicilian mafioso and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he became the capomandamento of the San Lorenzo district in 1993, replacing Salvatore Biondino, who was sent to prison. Lo Piccolo was a fugitive since 1983 and had been running his Mafia affairs in hiding. With the capture of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006, Lo Piccolo had been cementing his power and rise to the top of the Palermo Mafia until his own arrest on 5 November 2007. It is believed that his family spread across Europe due to rising tensions, settling in England, Portugal, and southern Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nenè Geraci</span> Member of the Sicilian Mafia

Antonino Geraci, better known as Nenè or il vecchio, was the historical boss of the Mafia in Partinico, in the Metropolitan City of Palermo. Geraci sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission since the mid-1970s and belonged to the hard line faction allied with the Corleonesi of Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, Geraci took care of the fugitive Riina while he stayed in Partinico.

Italian anarchism as a movement began primarily from the influence of Mikhail Bakunin, Giuseppe Fanelli, and Errico Malatesta. Rooted in collectivist anarchism and social or socialist anarchism, it expanded to include illegalist individualist anarchism, mutualism, anarcho-syndicalism, and especially anarcho-communism. In fact, anarcho-communism first fully formed into its modern strain within the Italian section of the First International. Italian anarchism and Italian anarchists participated in the biennio rosso and survived Italian Fascism, with Italian anarchists significantly contributing to the Italian Resistance Movement. Platformism and insurrectionary anarchism were particularly common in Italian anarchism and continue to influence the movement today. The synthesist Italian Anarchist Federation appeared after the war, and autonomismo and operaismo especially influenced Italian anarchism in the second half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Graviano</span> Italian mob boss

Giuseppe Graviano is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He and his three siblings became members of the Sicilian Mafia Commission for the Brancaccio-Ciaculli mandamento, substituting Giuseppe Lucchese who was in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariano Agate</span> Member of the Sicilian Mafia

Mariano Agate was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Mazara del Vallo Mafia family since the 1970s when he replaced the old boss Mariano Licari. He also was the boss of the mandamento of Mazara, including the Mafia families of Marsala, Salemi and Vita. Agate was a member of "Iside", one of the most powerful local Masonic lodges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Madonia</span> Member of the Sicilian Mafia

Francesco "Ciccio" Madonia was the Mafia boss of the San Lorenzo-Pallavicino area in Palermo. In 1978 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gianni Nicchi</span> Member of the Sicilian Mafia

Giovanni "Gianni" Nicchi is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age – he is nicknamed 'u picciutteddu – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo. He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 2006, until his arrest on 5 December 2009.

Pietro Tagliavia is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age, he is considered to be one of the upcoming leading Mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vito Roberto Palazzolo</span> Italian businessman

Vito Roberto Palazzolo is an Italian businessman previously living in South Africa. Born in Terrasini, he moved to South Africa in the mid-1980s. He also goes by the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko. He is alleged to be a member of the Sicilian Mafia, an allegation he denies. In March 2009, the highest court in Italy confirmed a 2006 nine-year sentence for association with the Mafia. He is alleged to be a Mafia treasurer linked to Bernardo Provenzano, the Mafia boss arrested in April 2006 in Corleone, Sicily, and his predecessor Salvatore Riina, both serving life sentences in Italian jails. Palazzolo maintains his innocence and claims that he has been persecuted by the Italian government, the press, lawyers, politicians, and "opportunists" for many years. On March 30, 2012 Palazzolo was arrested by Interpol at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand.

Raffaele Ganci was a member of the Mafia in Sicily from the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo. He was considered to be the right-hand man of Cosa Nostra boss Totò Riina and sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruno Contrada</span>

Bruno Contrada is the former police chief of Palermo and deputy director of the civil intelligence service SISDE who was arrested based on revelations of former Sicilian Mafiosi turned pentiti, Gaspare Mutolo and Giuseppe Marchese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatore Riina</span> Italian crime boss and member of the Sicilian Mafia

Salvatore Riina, called Totò, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.

The term State-Mafia Pact describes an alleged series of negotiations between important Italian government officials and Cosa Nostra members that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal to stop the attacks; according to other sources and hypotheses, it began even earlier. In summary, the supposed cornerstone of the deal was an end to "the Massacre Season" in return for a reduction in the detention measures provided for Italy's Article 41-bis prison regime. 41-bis was the law by which the Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone had condemned hundreds of mafia members to the "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long investigations, both by the courts and in the media. In 2021, the Court of Appeal of Palermo acquitted a close associate of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, while upholding the sentences of the mafia bosses. This ruling was confirmed by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in 2023.

Alfredo Cospito is an Italian anarchist. In his twenties, he refused conscription to military service and was convicted of desertion, then pardoned after going on hunger strike for one month. In 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years for kneecapping the head of the Italian nuclear power company Ansaldo Nucleare. Whilst imprisoned, he was convicted of the 2006 bombing of a Carabinieri barracks in which nobody was harmed. The Supreme Court of Cassation later increased the sentence to life without parole.

Nadia Desdemona Lioce is an imprisoned Italian member of the Red Brigades. Lioce was arrested in 2003 with Mario Galesi after a shootout on a train travelling between Rome and Florence and charged with several murders. At trial she admitted being a Brigadist and refused to speak more. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in the restrictive 41-bis prison regime, which involves solitary confinement.

References

  1. ↑ Long Distance Proceedings Through Videoconference: The Italian Experience Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Ministry of Justice (Italy) at the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Vienna, April 10–11, 2000
  2. ↑ "Response of the Italian Government to the report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) on its visit to Italy". European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment . Council of Europe. 20 April 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2011. The responsibility to decide on complaints against the ministerial decree setting the 41bis regime has been given to the Supervisory Court in Rome, in order to avoid conflicting verdicts on this issue by the territorial Supervisory Courts being in the past entrusted to decide, depending on the territorial penitentiary at which the prisoner under 41 bis had been placed; the term to lodge a complaint has been extended from ten to twenty days, though such complaint does not suspend the execution of the relevant measure.
  3. 1 2 Strasbourg court jurisprudence and human rights in Italy: An overview of litigation, implementation and domestic reform Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Juristras State of the Art Report by Marcello Flores, Anna Cesano & Sara Valentina Di Palma, University of Siena
  4. 1 2 3 Jamieson, The Antimafia, p. 45-46
  5. 1 2 Case of Enea v. Italy, Grand Chamber, European Court of Human Rights, 17 September 2009
  6. ↑ Concetto Vecchio (May 7, 2020). "Martelli: " Ho suggerito io a Bonafede il piano per riportare i boss in carcere, ma il mio decreto anti-mafiosi era un'altra cosa"" [Martelli: "I've suggested to [Alfonso] Bonafede to pur again the boss in prison, but my anti-mafia decree was another thing"]. La Repubblica (in Italian). Archived from the original on September 2, 2020.
  7. ↑ The Olive Tree of Peace: The massacre in via dei Georgofili Archived 14 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine , The Florentine, 24 May 2012)
  8. ↑ Amnesty International Report 2003 - Italy, Amnesty International, May 28, 2003
  9. 1 2 Italy condemned for tough jail conditions, ANSA, January 16, 2008
  10. 1 2 "Luigi Manconi: "Con 41 bis tanti diritti violati"". L'Espresso (in Italian). 5 November 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  11. ↑ Jailed Mafia bosses refuse food, BBC News, July 9, 2007
  12. 1 2 Mafiosi spread news of jail protest over law that stops them talking [ dead link ], The Independent, July 11, 2002
  13. ↑ Mafia strike leaves Italy cold, BBC News, July 16, 2002
  14. ↑ Suspected mob figure won't be returned to Italy, Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2007
  15. ↑ Fears of torture for Italian gangster Archived October 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , The Independent, October 17, 2007
  16. ↑ Press release [ permanent dead link ], European Court of Human Rights, November 27, 2007
  17. ↑ Press release Grand Chamber Judgment Enea v. Italy, European Convention on Human Rights, September 17, 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
  18. ↑ "Amnesty in fresh appeal for jailed anarchist head Cospito - English". ANSA. 24 January 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  19. ↑ "Alfredo Cospito: Hunger-striking Italian anarchist moved amid protests". BBC News. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  20. ↑ "Anarchist Cospito appeal to high court set in 3 mts time". ANSA. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  21. ↑ Castrillo, Pedro (30 November 2022). "Huelgas de hambre contra el régimen de aislamiento del preso anarquista Alfredo Cospito en Italia". El Salto. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  22. ↑ "Italy on alert amid anarchist attacks on diplomatic missions". AP NEWS. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  23. ↑ "La Corte di Cassazione ha anticipato al 24 febbraio l'udienza sul ricorso di Alfredo Cospito contro il 41-bis". Il Post (in Italian). 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.