Antigone: 'More than 50 per cent more minors in cells, blame the Caivano decree'

There are 11,000 unaccompanied foreign minors who have no place in the reception system. This is what is highlighted in 'Io non ti credo più', the eighth report by Antigone on Italian juvenile justice, presented on Wednesday 25 February. According to the association, starting with the Caivano decree, and ending with the recent security decree, the juvenile justice system has turned in on itself, abandoning the road to recovery to follow that of repression and criminalisation. Young people who encounter prison have lost all hope in juvenile justice. They no longer trust the world of adults, who administer it showing more and more desire for punishment and revenge and less and less welcome, listening, support.

As of 31 December 2025, the total number of places available in the SAI system (reception and integration system) was 41,289, of which 6,646 were made available for MSNAs, which - although slightly increasing - nevertheless remains far below the needs given by the presence of MSNAs on the national territory, which, at the end of 2025, numbered approximately 17,000.

According to the document, the reduction of funds for the reception of unaccompanied foreign minors has gone hand in hand with an increase in the entry of unaccompanied foreign minors into the penal system and in particular into juvenile prisons. During the visits to the institutes, Antigone verified how almost all of the youngsters from North Africa in particular are unaccompanied foreign minors. As of 31 December 2025, there were 572 minors and young adults present in Italian IPM (penal institutions for minors); of these, 344 were aged between 14 and 17. There were 242 boys and girls of foreign origin. Among them, 191 (about 79%) were from North Africa, mainly from Tunisia (74), Egypt (46) and Morocco (54).

Not only that. According to Antigone, the Caivano decree has led to a 50 per cent increase in the presence of young people in penal institutions for minors (Ipm). 'For the first time,' reads the document, 'the Ipm have experienced overcrowding'. At the end of 2022 there were 381 minors in the institutes, which became 572 at the end of 2025. Between 2023, the year of the decree, and 2024, the average daily presence of juveniles in the PMIs rose from 425.1 to 556.3, marking an increase of 30.9%. And prison admissions increased by more than 10%.

If in 2022, the last year entirely without the Caivano Decree, admissions to the CPAs were 745, in 2024, the first year entirely with the new rules, they rose to 1,144; they become 1,084 in 2025, an increase of 45.5% compared to 2022.