In the afternoon of Sunday 4th July a group of people descended on the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in solidarity with Natascia, on hunger strike since 16th June, and with all the prisoners.
Many talked expressing strong solidarity with the comrade locked up in AS3, on her third week of hunger strike to obtain a transfer from that jail. It was pointed out how the dispersion of prisoners carried out by the DAP [Department of Prison Administration] with transfers to prisons hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away from loved ones, contexts of life and struggle – and in the case of Natascia, whose trial has already started, making contact with her lawyer almost impossible – is clearly aimed at completely isolating those locked up and at breaking relations of solidarity between those inside and outside. In the face of Natascia’s great determination, we know that a solidarity presence outside the jail holding her prisoner is just a little of what we can do to support her in her battle.
We also know well the punitive aim of the dispersion of many prisoners in Santa Maria Capua Vetere these days, particularly from the Nilo section where beatings and torture took place on 6th April 2020. After a year, during which tortured and torturers were held side by side, the DAP transfers are clearly vindictive following the suspensions and arrests of prison personnel, especially if we consider that two of the prisons of destination, Modena and Rieti, are those where the State carried out then covered up the massacre of last March. Other known destinations are the prisons in Terni, Perugia, Carinola and Ariano Irpino.
On the day that the media brought the “scandal of Santa Maria Capua Vetere” to light, the electricity went off in the prison sections (guards talked of a blackout…), pointing to the intention that no news was to reach the prisoners.
Meanwhile, solidarity with prisoners has expressed itself in many cities, denying the theory of so-called “rotten apples” in the prison system, highlighting instead the latter’s profoundly rotten and murderous nature. DAP is up in arms, calling for protection of the guards. The press also mentioned “a malicious block of jail telephones following an attack on a telephone centre”.
What the press and TV are now saying about the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere was reported outside the walls, while pointing out the hypocrisy of news outlets with their tones of stupor and scandal. The brutality of the beatings of 6th April 2020 came out a year ago through the testimonies of prisoners and their relatives, whose voices remained almost unheard until measures were taken against screws and senior prison staff. To the eyes and ears of anyone who wanted to see and hear, the spiral of violence and reprisal by guards and DAP during and after the revolts of March 2020 was clear immediately, in spite of the fact that the media megaphone had shouted unanimously about “the blind violence of the prisoners”.
Recent news of beatings, abuse and violence by guards in many other prisons in Italy, such as the recent cases of Foggia, Melfi, Monza, Palermo and others, only confirm the violent and vindictive nature of prison and of those who work there.
This is what we wanted to say to the prisoners in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, who during the whole length of the gathering had made themselves heard by shouting (unfortunately not comprehensible from outside) and beating hard on the bars. The group in solidarity then left the prison walls after a volley of fireworks.
ALONGSIDE NATASCIA ON HUNGER STRIKE!
WITH ALL THE PRISONERS OF SANTA MARIA CAPUA VETERE!
