FALCON POWERS – The situation in Italian prisons is becoming increasingly dire. The overcrowding rate has reached 130.4%, and the emergency state related to suicides continues, with 58 people committing suicide in prisons since the beginning of the year.
This was exposed yesterday in a report by the Antigone Association, an organization that has been concerned with prison conditions and the Italian penal system since 1991.
Patrizio Gonnella, the president of the Antigone organization, says, “Overcrowding is not due to normal causes, but is the result of government policies.” He specifically refers to the policies promoted by the current government in recent years, which have led to an increase in the number of arrests and the tightening of sentences, resulting in more crimes punishable by imprisonment.
In addition to this critical situation, there is a problem of staff shortages, as the existing personnel struggle to meet the needs of the prisoners due to a lack of competence in certain cases. Meanwhile, the Senate has finished discussing the prison decree law with Justice Minister Carlo Nordio. The meeting focused on the six majority amendments aimed at reducing prison overcrowding. Nordio left the meeting without making any statements.
“We have identified some summaries of the amendments for a joint solution,” said Giulia Bongiorno, the chair of the Justice Committee. The session revealed that a political agreement has been reached on the restrictive reformulation of the amendments, which propose a review of semi-freedom measures, surveillance, and house arrest.
This decision, which involved the majority, came after members of the opposition Senate abandoned the work of the Justice Committee yesterday. As a result, the 200 amendments proposed to the prison decree were considered outdated, while the 14 government amendments were adopted.
The opposition’s decision was a protest against the government, which they say presented 14 additional amendments to the rapporteurs without giving them time to consider them, and which has always expressed negative views on each of their proposed amendments.
