NUORO, Italy, Feb 7 (Reuters) – In Nuoro, a remote town on the Italian island of Sardinia, a high stone wall surrounds the local prison, a fortress-like complex once famous for keeping convicted mobsters and terrorists away from the mainland.
Only a handful of top mobsters remain detained there, and Sardinia is no longer seen as a dumping ground for criminals, but building an international reputation around tourism.
But that could change under a plan by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government that has alarmed residents.
In December, an undersecretary for justice said that around 750 prisoners held under the rigid “41bis” regime would be concentrated in just a few dedicated facilities in Italy, overseen by special guard units to improve security.
Sardinia has said it could receive almost a third of them, split between Sassari in the north, which is already home to around 90 people, the capital Cagliari, where around 90 are due to arrive this month, and Nuoro – reviving old stigmatization concerns.
“Sardinia does not deserve to be seen as the Cayenne of Italy,” said Governor Alessandra Todde, referring to French Guiana’s notorious former penal colony on Devil’s Island.
MAFIA INFILTRATION CONCERNS
Italy’s 41bis regime, named after the law that regulates it, is among the most restrictive in Europe. Introduced in 1992 after the murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, it imposes almost total isolation on prisoners and was designed to stop bosses running their operations from behind bars.
The law says it should “preferably” be applied to the Italian islands. Late Sicilian mob boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina was among those once held in Sardinia.
Locals and authorities fear the government’s plan could prompt mafia clans to move from mainland Italy to be near jailed relatives, creating opportunities to launder illegal money and infiltrate businesses, particularly in less developed areas such as Nuoro, a town of 30,000.
Silvio Lai, a Sardinian lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, visited the city’s prison last month and said renovation work was already underway, potentially making room for at least 30 new maximum-security inmates.
“Weak economies can be easily infiltrated and Nuoro is about an hour’s drive from the Costa Smeralda,” Lai said, suggesting a mafia stronghold in the town could quickly spread to the island’s luxury resort.
The Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment on the works.
ENHANCEMENT OF NATIONAL SECURITY
Autonomous mafia groups have never emerged in sparsely populated Sardinia, but magistrates say investigations have been opened into the alleged infiltration of clans into the north of the island, possibly encouraged by the presence of detained mobsters.
“Prosecutors are closely following the phenomenon of Camorra (a mafia group based around Naples) investments … especially in the tourism, hospitality and restaurant sectors,” said Cagliari’s chief prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio.
At a December meeting with regional officials, Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove downplayed the risk of a mass move to Sardinia, the minutes show, arguing that families of 41bis detainees typically do not leave clan-controlled areas.
“This (plan) will ensure greater national security … it will make individual prisons more secure because only specialized guard units will be deployed,” Delmastro said.
However, Maria Cristina Ornano, head of Cagliari’s sentencing court, said the police and judiciary would need increased security resources if more mobsters arrive.
“Once organized crime takes root here, we won’t be able to get rid of it. We can see it in parts of southern Italy that are among the most economically and socially disadvantaged,” she told Reuters.
“PILOT SOLDIERS”
Nuoro residents and officials say the risk today is no longer violence, but white-collar crime.
“The mafia no longer shoots, they bid at public auctions. And with important European Union funds flowing in, the danger of infiltration by organized crime increases,” said Sebastian Cocco, a local lawyer and politician.
Tourism accounts for only 7% of production in the Nuoro region, Chamber of Commerce data shows in 2025, where the economy is based mainly on agriculture and is dominated by small firms.
Pietro Borrotzu, a Catholic priest who runs a prisoner rehabilitation cooperative in Nuoro, said poor working conditions and low wages provide an ideal environment for clans.
“In that kind of context, organized crime could find a lot of foot soldiers,” he said.
Business lobby Confindustria has accused successive governments of failing to invest in infrastructure and jobs in Nuoro.
“We are more of an island than Sardinia itself, far from ports and airports. Business incentives would be needed and instead we are punished with 41bis prisoners,” said Pierpaolo Milia, the local head of the group.
FRAGILE HEALTH
Like most of southern Italy, Sardinia has a fragile health system and an aging population.
A Cagliari court document shows that the island, home to 1.5 million inhabitants, already has one of the highest inmate-to-resident ratios in Italy and that residents face higher costs of caring for inmates than in other parts of the country.
Transferring a mobster for medical care requires an escort of dozens of prison guards, and a growing number of such hospitalizations could force authorities to close entire wards.
“If you have to treat one of them, you have to stop everything else, blocking the public health service,” said Giacomo Porcu, the mayor of Uta, which is home to Cagliari prison.
Irene Testa, the regional guarantor for prisoners, said the government had so far made no commitment to strengthen prison health care or ease potential burdens on the general service.
“The island’s prisons are already on their knees. We cannot accept to become Italy’s penal colony again.”
(Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Gareth Jones)