On 25 and 26 February 2025, in the framework of the ‘In-depth training activity at the central offices of the Police Forces’ provided for in the curriculum of the current Academic Year, the trainees of the XL Advanced Training Course, accompanied by the Head of the Experimentation Section of the Study Office, Prison Police Management Grade Officer Salvatore Pede, went to visit the “Piersanti Mattarella” Scuola Superiore dell’Esecuzione Penale and the Naples-based Poggioreale “Giuseppe Salvia” Prison.
On the first day, the Head of Training, Dirigente Generale Rita Russo, welcomed the participants and opened the session in the presence also of the Head of Division I, Prison Police Primo Dirigente Silvio Gallo. The meeting was held at the “Beltrami Scalia” conference hall at the Scuola Superiore dell’Esecuzione Penale.
The lectures delivered by the Heads of the Special Units, as well as of the Office for Personal Security and Surveillance and of Division III, Competitions, Welfare and Health of the Prison Police, enabled the trainees to acquire a direct and comprehensive understanding of the Prison Police activities.
Moreover, the visit to the Central Laboratory for the National DNA Database was highly appreciated, as well as the air show of the ‘anti-drone’ pilots held at the airfield. These pilots belong to a Prison Police special unit recently created to detect and intercept drones capable of making ‘illegal deliveries’ to prisoners.
The following day, the trainees went to Naples-based Poggioreale ‘Giuseppe Salvia’ Prison, where they were welcomed by the Prison Administration Regional Superintendent, Dirigente Generale Lucia Castellano, by the Director of the Prison, Mr. Stefano Martano, by Prison Police Chief, Primo Dirigente Francesco Maiorano and by the Prison Police Vice-Chief, Management Grade Officer Pasquale Gallo.
The venue, named after Mr. Giuseppe Salvia, the Deputy Director of Poggioreale Prison, a victim of organised crime, who was murdered by the Camorra organization in 1981, consists of eight central premises linked by a long corridor; over time, the detention areas were named after some Italian cities: Naples, Milan, Livorno, Genoa, Turin, Venice, Avellino, Florence, Salerno and Rome. This venue houses prisoners belonging to the high and medium security regimes and other sectors of interest (protected sex offenders, common prisoners, etc). In 1983, in the area that housed the warehouses used for the working prisoners, a bunker room was built for the ‘Tortora’ trial, that was subsequently divided into 4 bunker rooms. In 1998, a 900-metre-long tunnel connecting the Institute to the new Palace of Justice was built.
