The formulation of the suspected crime is for now only a formality in order to carry out the necessary inspections.
Prison sources say the inmate had been under high surveillance following her transfer from Liguria, but that this had been lowered to ‘medium’ due to the presence of a so-called ‘peer supporter’, namely her cell mate.
She reportedly took her own life when her cell mate was absent.
Prosecutors are also probing the death in the same prison on Friday of a 43-year-old woman from Nigeria.
The woman had reportedly refused food, water and medication for 18 days.
Investigators have asked the prison management to provide a series of documents on the two women and autopsies will ordered on Monday.
For now, the cases are being treated separately.
Meanwhile, penitentiary police officers have intervened to prevent a young inmate from committing suicide at a jail in Potenza, the Basilicata regional secretary of the autonomous union of prison police (Sappe), Saverio Brienza, said on Sunday.
The prisoner, a 20-year-old Italian of Roma origin, was rescued by two assistant police chiefs at the jail.
Brienza highlighted the “shameful” reduction in the number of prison officers in Basilicata prisons.
Sappe Secretary General Donato Capece called on Justice Minister Carlo Nordio to “set up a permanent working group on the critical situation in prisons immediately”.
Prison police personnel are “exhausted by the relentless rhythm of service due to the constant and violent acts of aggression,” he added.
Nordio visited the Turin prison where the woman took her own life on Saturday and was met with booing and shouting prisoners.
Sources inside the facility said inmates were also protesting by beating on the bars of their cells with mess tins and other objects and shouting ‘Freedom! Freedom!’
It was said to have lasted around half an hour.
The poor conditions and chronic overcrowding in Italy’s prisons have come back into the spotlight after these incidents.
Nordio has said the solution is to readapt former army barracks as prisons for people convicted of minor crimes.
However, prisoners’ rights association Antigone and unions representing penitentiary police officers insist that more prison staff and non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment are needed.
ANSA
