Ucciardone Prison
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.jpg) The Ucciardone in 2009 | |
 Interactive map of Ucciardone Prison | |
| Location |
|
|---|---|
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Casa di reclusione |
| Capacity | 614 |
| Population | 585 (19 September 2026) |
| Opened | 1842 |
| Managed by | Ministry of Justice |
| Governor | Renato Persico (acting)[1] |
The Ucciardone (Italian: Carcere dell'Ucciardone), officially the Casa di reclusione "Calogero Di Bona", is a prison in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Designed in the early 19th century under the Bourbon monarchy, it has been in use since 1842.[1][2]
Until the early 1990s it held many leading members of the Sicilian Mafia, who called it the "Grand Hotel" because of the privileges they enjoyed there.[3][4] The Maxi Trial against the Mafia opened in 1986 in a bunker courtroom built inside the prison compound.[4][5]
History
[edit]The name is said to come from the field of thistles (French chardon, Sicilian u ciarduni) on which the prison was built.[6][2]
The prison was designed at the beginning of the 19th century by the architect Nicolò Puglia and later remodelled by the Palermo architect Emmanuele Palazzotto (1798–1872).[1][6] Its radial plan was inspired by the panopticon devised by Jeremy Bentham, although the building was never completed as originally planned.[2][7] It began operating in 1842, when the inmates of the old Vicaria prison were transferred there.[1][6]
In 2014–2015, as part of a reorganisation of the prisons in Sicily, the Ucciardone was reclassified from a casa circondariale, which also holds people awaiting trial, to a casa di reclusione for prisoners serving final sentences. Remand prisoners were sent to Pagliarelli Prison instead.[8][1][a]
On 8 January 2018 the prison was named after Calogero Di Bona, a marshal of the prison guards who was killed by the Mafia on 28 August 1979.[9][1]
Mafia inmates
[edit]Mafia bosses held at the Ucciardone referred to it ironically as the "Grand Hotel Ucciardone".[3][8] According to the journalist Attilio Bolzoni, they told their wives they were going on holiday when they were taken there. He wrote that inside they dined on lobster and controlled some of the sections, and that the state tolerated it.[3][6]
On 9 February 1954 Gaspare Pisciotta, the lieutenant and cousin of the bandit Salvatore Giuliano, who was serving a life sentence, drank a cup of coffee in the cell he shared with his father. He died shortly afterwards in the prison infirmary, and the autopsy found strychnine.[10][11]
After the killing of Paolo Borsellino in the via D'Amelio bombing of 19 July 1992, the justice minister Claudio Martelli signed the first orders applying the 41-bis regime. During the following night 55 inmates were taken from the Ucciardone and flown on military aircraft to the island prison of Pianosa.[12][3]
Bunker courtroom
[edit]
For the Maxi Trial a bunker courtroom was built inside the Ucciardone in six months, at a cost of 36 billion lire. The trial opened there on 10 February 1986, with about 400 defendants held in cages.[4][5] The courtroom stands within the historic walls of the prison.[8] On 12 November 2022 it was named after the magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in a ceremony attended by President Sergio Mattarella.[5]
A cell in the reserved area of the bunker courtroom held the pentito Tommaso Buscetta while he testified at the Maxi Trial. In 1993 the same cell was used by Salvatore Riina, who was moved there after his capture to attend his own trials. The cell was shown to the press in May 2022, during a conference of the prosecutors general of the Council of Europe.[13][14]
Population and conditions
[edit]According to the Ministry of Justice, on 19 September 2026 the prison held 585 inmates, against an official capacity of 614 places, 38 of which were not available. At the end of August 2026 its staff included 290 officers of the prison police, out of 341 planned.[1]
In July 2026 the prison was visited by the members of the European Parliament Leoluca Orlando and Giuseppe Lupo, together with Palermo's municipal ombudsman for prisoners, Pino Apprendi. Orlando reported a climate of strong tension, with cases of self-harm and hunger strikes, and said that psychiatric patients were being left in stifling rooms. Lupo and Apprendi called for the closure of the ninth section, citing hygiene problems and structural deficiencies that could not be remedied.[15][16]
Work and activities
[edit]In 2019 the float for the 395th Feast of Saint Rosalia, the festival of Palermo's patron saint, was built piece by piece by inmates inside the prison.[17] In 2026 the Ministry of Justice listed eight inmates working on the float. Most working inmates are employed by the prison administration itself, mainly on cleaning.[1]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Palermo Ucciardone" (in Italian). Ministero della Giustizia, Dipartimento dell'amministrazione penitenziaria. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 Baiamonte, Carlo; Catalanotto, Pina (8 November 2022). "Il panottico del cardo borbonico". Pressenza (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Bolzoni, Attilio (7 May 2020). "Dal Grand Hotel Ucciardone all'inferno del 41bis. La guerra Stato-mafia sulle carceri". la Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2026 – via Ristretti Orizzonti.
- 1 2 3 Bellavia, Enrico (9 February 2026). "Maxiprocesso: quando crollò il mito dell'impunità per la mafia". L'Espresso (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Mafia: l'aula bunker intitolata a Falcone e Borsellino". ANSA (in Italian). 12 November 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Chi ha paura dell'Ucciardone? La fortezza borbonica è un monumento da scoprire". Balarm (in Italian). 1 October 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Storia e architettura del carcere più antico di Palermo: dietro le mura dell'Ucciardone". Balarm (in Italian). 19 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Ziniti, Alessandra (7 January 2015). "L'Ucciardone cambia volto e diventa casa di reclusione". la Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Ucciardone intitolato a mar. Di Bona". ANSA (in Italian). 8 January 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "The Big Mouth". Time. 22 February 1954. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Frasca Polara, Giorgio (8 February 2010). "La tazzina di caffè che inaugurò la stagione dei veleni" (in Italian). Libertà e Giustizia. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Romeo, Gregorio (29 June 2016). "Sepolti vivi: luci e ombre del 41-bis, il più duro regime carcerario italiano". Vice (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Mafia: un letto e angolo cucina, ecco la cella di Buscetta". ANSA (in Italian). 6 May 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Viaggio nel tempo del maxiprocesso dentro la cella di Tommaso Buscetta" (in Italian). AGI. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Gli europarlamentari Orlando e Lupo in visita al carcere Ucciardone di Palermo: "Gravi criticità"" (in Italian). Italpress. 31 July 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Ispezione all'Ucciardone, Orlando (Avs): "C'è un forte clima di tensione"". LiveSicilia (in Italian). 31 July 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Festino: carro Santa Rosalia sarà realizzato da detenuti". ANSA (in Italian). 9 March 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2026.