There has been a spate of 15 suicides so far this year, for which overcrowding has been blamed as one of the main causes.
“We objectively have an increase of about 400 more inmates every month in Italian prisons,” said the head of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP), Giovanni Russo, speaking to the House justice committee.
“As of today, we have 60,814 inmates,” Russo went on.
“Of these, 43,000 are common and the others are divided into high security and 41 bis (the tough mafia regime).
“But we are still far from the numbers that triggered the so-called Torreggiani sentence,” said Russo.
Russo was referring to a 2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that condemned Italy for cruel and inhumane conditions caused by an overcrowding rate of 148 per cent.
At that time, the country had over 66,500 inmates in what was a slightly smaller-capacity system.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Monday that more jail places are needed to ease the overcrowding that has contributed to the spate of suicides.
She said the overcrowding couldn’t be solved by decriminalisation and finding more alternatives to incarceration as advocated by opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein.
“I think it can be resolved by boosting prison capacity, and hiring and supporting prison staff as the government has done, because that is the only serious response that a State can give,” Meloni said during her Japan trip.
The latest two prison suicides came Sunday at Verona and Caserta.
ANSA
