NUORO, Italy, February 7 (Reuters) – In Nuoro, a remote city on the Italian island of Sardinia, a high stone wall surrounds the local prison, a fortress-like complex once famous for housing high-profile mobsters and convicted terrorists from far away from the mainland.
With only a handful of top Mafia figures still detained there, Sardinia is no longer seen as a dumping ground for criminals, but has developed an international reputation for tourism.
But that could change under a plan from Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s government that has alarmed residents.
In December, a deputy justice minister said some 750 prisoners held under the strict “41bis” system would be concentrated in several purpose-built facilities across Italy and supervised by special guard units to improve security.
Sardinia has been told it may receive nearly a third of them, split between Sassari in the north (already hosting around 90), the capital Cagliari (around 90 will arrive this month) and Nuoro (reviving old stigma concerns).
“Sardinia does not deserve to be considered the Cayenne of Italy,” said Governor Alexandra Todd, citing the notorious former French Guiana penal colony on Devil’s Island.
Concerns about mafia infiltration
Italy’s 41bis system, named after the law that governs it, is one of the most restrictive in Europe. The bill, introduced in 1992 after the murder of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, introduced near-total isolation of prisoners and was intended to prevent bosses from operating inside prisons.
The law said it would be “best” to enforce it on the Italian islands. The late Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina was imprisoned in Sardinia.
Locals and authorities fear the government’s plans could prompt the Mafia to move from mainland Italy closer to imprisoned relatives, creating opportunities for money laundering and business infiltration, especially in less developed areas such as Nuoro, a city of 30,000 people.
Silvio Lai, a lawmaker from Sardinia’s opposition Democratic Party, visited the city’s prison last month and said renovations were already underway that could make room for at least 30 new maximum-security inmates.
“Weak economies are easy to penetrate, and Nuoro is about an hour’s drive from the Costa Smeralda,” Lai said, suggesting the mafia’s foothold in the city could quickly spread to the island’s luxury resorts.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the effort.
strengthen national security
Sardinia, a sparsely populated island, has never had an autonomous mafia group, but magistrates said an investigation had begun into alleged tribal infiltration in the north of the island, possibly because of the presence of detained gangsters.
Cagliari chief prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said: “Prosecutors are paying close attention to the phenomenon of investments by the Camorra[a Mafia organization based in Naples]… especially in the tourism, hotel and catering industries.”
At a December meeting with regional officials, Deputy Justice Minister Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove downplayed the risk of mass transfers to Sardinia, arguing that families of 41bis detainees generally do not leave tribally controlled areas, minutes show.
“This (plan) will ensure greater national security … and will make individual prisons safer because only dedicated prison guard units will be deployed,” Del Mastro said.
However, Maria Cristina Ornano, president of Cagliari’s execution tribunal, said the police and judiciary would need to increase security resources if more mobs arrived.
“Once organized crime takes root here, we will not be able to eradicate it. We can see this crime in parts of southern Italy, which are among the most economically and socially deprived areas,” she told Reuters.
“infantry”
Nuoro residents and officials say the risk today is no longer violence but white-collar crime.
“The Mafia no longer shoots guns, but conducts open tenders. With the large flow of EU funds, the danger of infiltration by organized crime increases,” said Sebastian Cocco, a lawyer and local politician.
According to 2025 Chamber of Commerce data, tourism accounts for only 7% of the Nuoro region’s output, and the region’s economy relies mainly on agriculture and is dominated by small businesses.
Pietro Borrotzu, a Catholic priest who runs a prisoner rehabilitation cooperative in Nuoro, said precarious working conditions and low wages provide an ideal environment for these tribes.
“Organized crime is likely to find a lot of foot soldiers in this situation,” he said.
Business lobby group Confederation of Industry accused successive governments of failing to invest in Nuoro’s infrastructure and jobs.
“We are more of an island than Sardinia itself, far away from ports and airports. We need business incentives, but we are punished with 41bis of prisoners,” said Pierpaolo Milia, the group’s local director.
fragile health care
Like much of southern Italy, Sardinia has a fragile health care system and an aging population.
The island of 1.5 million people already has one of the highest prisoner-to-resident ratios in Italy, and residents face higher costs for inmate medical care than elsewhere in the country, Cagliari court documents show.
Transferring rioters to medical facilities requires escorts by dozens of prison guards, and a growing number of such admissions could force authorities to close entire wards.
“If you have to treat one of them, you have to stop everything else, hampering public health services,” said Giacomo Porcu, the mayor of Uta, where Cagliari’s prison is located.
Erin Testa, regional surety for detainees, said the government has so far not committed to strengthening prison health care or easing potential burdens on general service staff.
“The island’s prisons are overstretched. We cannot accept becoming an Italian penal colony again.”
(Reporting by Angelo Amante Editing by Gareth Jones)
