Letter from jail by Giorgio

English translation of the letter sent from jail by Giorgio Rossetto, one of the arrested people in the No-Tav judicial inquiry [thanks to Lorenzo for the translation – italian version].

Dear comrades,
On the morning of Thursday the 9th I was moved from the temporary holding cells to a solitary confinement division of the prison with other detainees. I don’t want to succumb to the complaining that afflicts the other inmates; instead I will merely describe the reality of my situation.
It is a solitary confinement section with all of the characteristics of a classic prison regime. There are about 10 of us in 6 cells, a small corridor with a camera, cells constructed in such a way that a small room at the intersection of each adjacent cell, now empty, allows the supervision of our every movement. So, 6 cells and three small, reinforced ‘control rooms’. Every cell has its own court-yard.

The open-air space is a hole 5 by 2 metres in size, surrounded by very high walls. The sun never reaches the inside of the courtyard in autumn, winter or spring. Only in summer, when it is highest in the sky, are its rays able to reach inside. The guard controls the corridor for 24 hours a day from a little reinforced room. To call him we have to press a button. There are 10 of us. One of us is nominated the contact for the section, who must be ever vigilant. Apart from the barber, who comes every Saturday to visit the inmates, the only time we have contact with other people is in the mess hall on Sundays.
I am getting to know the other comrades in my section and beginning to forge friendships. They have already written two protest letters to the director of the prison in the last two months. They are all under investigation, awaiting judgement, and they don’t understand why they are in this special section.
On the register in the sentry box the guards have written “dangerous detainee” next to my name and effect two ‘cell checks’ a day, hah… maybe they’re scared I will escape.
On Saturday morning the guard had me sign 3 papers that reaffirmed my support for the protests in the ‘vallette’ [a prison in Turin in which the comrade in question along with 3 other activists from the No Tav movement staged a protest against the conditions to which they were being submitted. They were subsequently transferred to various different prisons]. I will go in the next couple of days to see the director of the prison for a ‘disciplinary hearing’, that’s how they’ve described it, to receive disciplinary measures, I don’t know of what sort, given that I am already in solitary confinement. Here they say that this director, Lettieri Giorgio, was the deputy director of the Vallette for many years and is good friends with the management there. The commander of the guards met me in his office and made me understand that he wouldn’t appreciate a musical presidium outside the prison. We should work to enact one, but calmly and with no rush (at the start of March?)
As far as the investigation is concerned I will avoid falling into states of mind that are overly pessimist or optimist. I am calm and in good spirits, if just a bit cold (some nights are -20 degrees). When we spoke with the other comrades from the Vallette my predictions for the appeal in court were: half will remain inside, half will be set free. The first hearing in fact went like this. I’ll wait until the next hearing on Tuesday before making further evaluations.
In the Vallette the newspapers were about to arrive just before I was transferred. Now I have to wait until Monday the 20th to receive them. At the Vallette the inmates in our section read only the Torino cronaca, here they won’t even give us that squalid publication. I still don’t know where the other No Tav detainees have been transferred. On this evening’s airing of tg3 [channel 3 news] I saw a presidium outside a gaol that I didn’t recognise, maybe Alessandria, maybe Asti.

A thank you to Anonymous. 

A salute to the entire No Tav movement.

A hug to all of my comrades.

Giorgio