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Overcrowding and suicides on the rise, the black year in Italian prisons

Distant controversy and disagreements over data between Dap and Antigone

by Davide Madeddu

14 December 2024

3' min read

Key points

Official Dap numbers
The Garante's analysis
Association data

3' min read

It is not just overcrowding. In Italian prisons, the number of inmates who take their own lives is growing. The data, albeit with a distinction between the official ones (79 suicides) and those recorded by the associations dealing with the rights of inmates (86 suicides), speak of a growth compared to the past or, at least, to last year.

The official Dap numbers

For the Dap, which in this regard and after the stance taken by the representatives of Antigone (the association for "Rights and Guarantees in the Penal System"), issued a note in which it provided the official data and underlined: the number of inmates who have taken their own lives inside penitentiary institutions since 1 January 2024 is 79. "The figure," reports the note from the Department of Prison Administration, "refers to the number of cases for which the evidence of the facts excluded the need for further investigation by the Judicial Authority. In 2022 the highest number of suicides: 84". Not only that, the Dap note of 5 December certifies that 'there are 116 deaths of inmates from natural causes and 22 from causes to be ascertained'.

The Guarantor's Focus

Highlighting the growth in the number of suicides, at least compared to last year, is the 'Focus suicides and deaths in prison year 2024', updated to 2 December, produced by the National Guarantor of Persons Deprived of their Liberty. "The Department of Penitentiary Administration since the beginning of 2024 has recorded 79 suicides and 19 deaths from causes to be ascertained," the document reads. "This is a high figure compared to the same month of December 2023 in which 61 suicides were recorded (with an increase of 18 deaths) while it is the same compared to December 2022.

The Garante's analysis

The document also analyses the recorded events. And the study shows that of the suicides, two occurred outside the institution. 'The average age of the people who committed suicide,' it says, 'is about 40 years old. As for the people who took their own lives, of the 79, 77 were men and 2 women. Another element concerns nationality: a total of 45 Italian people and 34 foreigners from 15 different countries killed themselves. The Focus also shows that 19 people had attempted suicide in the past and 14 were under surveillance.

To Campania sad record

Of the 79 suicides recorded, 11 occurred in Campania. Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto followed with 8 episodes in each region. Then Emilia Romagna with 7 cases, Lazio, Piedmont and Sardinia with 6. In Liguria there were 5 suicides while in Abruzzo, Calabria and Sicily 3. The same was true in Apulia, with the lowest number with 1 episode each, Marche and Umbria.

Association data

For the associations, the figure is higher. The representatives of Antigone, the voluntary association 'For the rights and guarantees of the penal system' speak of 86 suicides, 7 more than those indicated by the Dap in its note. The 86 suicides since the beginning of the year constitute a tragedy that cannot be minimised by excluding from the list of deaths by suicide those people who took their last breath in hospital, even though they made the gesture in prison," comments Patrizio Gonnella, president of Antigone. An enormous number of dead inmates that has overcrowding as a concomitant cause, in the sense that the 15 thousand people more than the regulatory beds turn inmates into numbers. In fact, the staff remains numerically more or less the same while the inmates grow by several hundred per month. Many inmates kill themselves in solitary confinement wards, which should be closed, rethought, humanised'.

The appeal to politics

From the president of the association also a passage on political choices: 'Minister Nordio is wrong when in parliament, in order to defend the armed prison police calendar, he evokes the sword. At this rate, tensions, conflicts will grow. It will be the prison staff itself that will suffer the consequences, inevitably reverting to the old and outdated wording of correctional officers".

Between overcrowding and critical events

There is also another problem upstream: overcrowding, since 62,464 prisoners are incarcerated in the 150 detention facilities. There are 46,663 places regularly available compared to the regulatory capacity of 51,165 (gap - 4,502 places).

The Focus also highlights another aspect: the impact of overcrowding on the trend of critical events. According to the comparative analysis of the most significant critical events," it reads, "it is conceivable that an increase in overcrowding could be associated with an increase in critical events, in particular those critical events that, more than others, are an expression of prisoner unease, such as acts of aggression, self-harm, suicide, suicide attempts, homicide, physical attacks on prison police and administrative staff.