The Italian government has “moved in a unilateral and arrogant way, treating Sardinia like the Cayenne of Italy”, said Alessandra Todde, governor of Sardinia.
The official – referring to the former penal colony off the coast of French Guiana that was nicknamed “Devil’s Island” – has accused the government of ignoring her objections and not permitting her to be “involved in decisions that directly affect” Sardinia, said Il Sole 24 Ore.
Last weekend 88 high-security prisoners arrived on the island, said The Times. They are among the “746 inmates held under Italy’s toughest solitary confinement rules”, taking Sardinia’s total to 183 – a quarter of the national total.
Starting with protest flashpoints in February, Sardinians continue to oppose the prisoners’ relocation to the island, but one prison official told the newspaper: “We can’t send them to Sicily because many of them come from there in the first place.”
Meanwhile, locals fear that as more of the high-security prisoners arrive, mafia clans could “move from mainland Italy to be near jailed relatives”, said The Independent.
Sardinia already faces one of the country’s highest prisoner-to-inhabitant ratios and increasing that could strain services. Like much of southern Italy, Sardinia has a “fragile healthcare system and an ageing population”. Additionally, islanders face “higher inmate healthcare costs than in other parts of the country”. If a “mobster” in prison were to need hospital treatment, they would require an escort of “dozens of prison guards” and, in order to accommodate them and protect the public, authorities could be forced to “shut entire wards”.
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