When Justice Turns Vendetta

WHEN JUSTICE TURNS TO VENDETTA:
THE FATE OF ‘MAFIA’ SOLDIERS IN ITALIAN ‘STATE’ PRISONS:

St. Francis, the patron saint of Italy, believed no man should be seen as a cruel and beyond help angry wolf and clearly stated that if a wolf attacks a town, some of the responsibility must fall on the town’s citizens who denied the wolf his share of food in the first place. In the saint’s footsteps walks friar Beppe Prioli who has been visiting life sentence prisoners in Italian prisons for more than 30 years. Journalist Fabio Finazzi from Bergamo, has recently written a book called ‘Brother Wolf’ in which ‘Frà Beppe’s work is explained. The book also includes many letters from inmates of the sadly famous ‘High Security’ Italian island prisons. But ‘there is nothing, no comment at all on the problem of the dead-not-dead ‘mafia’ accused prisoners held in the ‘41 Bis’ torture regime’ claims Carmelo Musumeci, spokesman for the ‘struggling life-long prisoners of Spoleto’.
Mr Musumeci, who writes stories about wolves himself –the much loved ‘Blue Thang’s adventures’ series for the children and grand children of life sentence prisoners- and has already spent more than 18 years in prison himself, also suggests that ‘Finazzi has not climbed down into the dark depths of Italian prison affairs as there is no mention of the fact that more than 500 supposedly ‘mafia’ soldiers -of which many condemned to life sentences- are buried alive in cement coffins and deprived of any rights while those who used to be in command of them are free and happy after having declared themselves ‘pentiti’. Mafia connected prisoners are not even allowed a view of the sky as the barred windows of their cells are covered by metal plates. ‘Even so called monsters should be allowed to see the stars and the moon during their life span, but most of all should be allowed to use what is a gift from heaven to all men, free or not: the voice’ Carmelo Musumeci goes on. Silence as a rule has been confirmed this week by a new rule which foresees disciplinary sanctions –punishment- for prisoners who dare to speak up! ‘They must have got the idea from some rule concerning convent life in the 1700’s’ jokes Carmelo Musumeci –who has acquired a degree in law during his stay in prison but like so many of his companions entered as an adult who could barely read and write. He then goes back to seriousness when he states that ‘these men are faced with the diabolical task of proving they are no longer dangerous without having any occasion to do so!’. Every government that has ruled Italy through the last 16 years has tried to prove its freedom from mafia connections by punishing these ‘old and dirty mafia men’ a bit more. ‘Many of them cannot even add two to two!’ Carmelo Musumeci exclaims and goes on to tell us about ’18 year old’s sentenced to life imprisonment who will live and eventually expire in jail, without any chance to change or have a life of their own ever again, like his mate Ivano Rapisarda, the baby killer from Gela, in the heart of Sicily’. People who have been used and are still being used.
‘Many of these men are completely incapable of standing up for themselves, let alone of facing their jailers’ Mr Musumeci continues. ‘They are completely institutionalised and their lives are in the hands of the anti-mafia mafia which obliges them to go on behaving as if they were already dead so as not to create a stir outside’. ‘The difference from the situations Finazzi confronts in his book and what I see and live through is that the people he tells us about had hope while the 500 ‘monsters’ held prisoners today in Italy by other ‘monsters’ have no hope at all and are denied everything, as no journalists, no friars or priests, not even God cares what will happen to them’ cries Carmelo who none the less shall go on denouncing this state of affairs though his family is begging him to shut up and worry about himself: ‘I am already in trouble,’ he states. ‘I will not give up my dignity or my conscience. They are the only freedom I have and I think it’s ironic that it should be me who is telling you about all this as it shows that I am a lot more free than many so called free men!’ Carmelo, ‘Blue Thang’ laughs.