Inmate Accuses Prison Officers of Smuggling Cellphones into Prison

"Cell phones in prison? Either the officers are not good at checking, or they are the ones bringing them in". Luigi D'Alessio, a victim of beatings that took place in the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison on April 6, 2020, does not mince words from the defendant's bench. The witness, currently detained in Syracuse, in answering questions, spoke about the ways in which, according to him, phones are brought into prison. The witness also spoke of a cell phone he possessed during the days when the violence occurred, which was given to him to call his family by a prisoner, and which in turn was given to the latter by a prison officer. "But I don't mention the prisoner's name", said D'Alessio, who, in response to a question from lawyer De Stavola, also explained that he did not know who the officer was who had brought the cell phone into prison. After the facts, D'Alessio recounted that the cell phone was given directly to him by an officer with glasses and spiky hair, not a prisoner: "So I told a lie, to provoke after the many beatings I received", he admits. "Don't you know how cell phones get into prison?", the witness then added, provocatively: "At the entrance, you are checked with a metal detector, both the fixed one and the mobile one shaped like a paddle, so it is impossible not to discover a phone. So either the officers are not good at checking or they bring them in themselves".