Water and insects
.There is also another aspect that the dossier, which was created after 88 visits to detention facilities throughout the country, highlights. "In the Avellino prison, at the time of the visit, running water was not available from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.," the dossier underlines. "The cells presented infiltrations of mould, besides not being equipped with showers. At the women's section, the windows were fitted with Plexiglas screens, thus preventing the passage of air (even on days like the one when the visit took place when the thermometer read 41 degrees)'. Then, the presence of cockroaches and bedbugs 'detected respectively in the Bologna and Pavia casecircondarial homes'. Not only that, 'in the seventh section of the Regina Coeli institute in Rome, the cells are very small and house 2 or 3 people on a single bunk bed; the toilet and the washbasin are in a small adjacent room without intimacy'.
The proposals
From the heads of the voluntary association also an appeal for measures to be taken to change this scenario. "Overcrowding," Patrizio Gonnella stresses, "is not due to natural causes but is the result of government policies. Hence, the requests: 'To tackle this situation,' the dossier goes on to say, 'urgent measures are needed to significantly reduce overcrowding and improve the quality of life in prisons. Measures that cannot be the minimalist ones envisaged in the prison decree, recently approved by the government and now being discussed in the Senate for conversion into law, but that are more courageous: an increase in the number of days of special early release; the decriminalisation of some crimes (and the deletion of the security decree); the liberalisation of telephone calls; the hiring of both police and civil personnel: educators, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and cultural mediators'. From the association also an appeal for the amendment concerning the Opgos to be withdrawn: 'it would be a step backwards compared to the reform that abolished what was the last total asylum institution in Italy'. From overcrowding to suicides, passing by the heat, continuing with reduced spaces, little water and the proposals, including that of "no to the OPGs".In 12 months 4 thousand more inmatesIn outlining the scenario of Italian prisons, where there have been "4 thousand more inmates in just 12 months" is the association Antigone, an organisation that has been dealing with the Italian prison and penal system since 1991, in its latest dossier. "The level of overcrowding reached in Italian prisons is now at guard levels," denounces the association's dossier. The overcrowding rate is 130.4 per cent (net of the places counted by the Ministry of Justice but not really available)".Overcrowding also exceeds 150 per centNot only that, the association's work highlights another aspect: "In 56 penitentiary institutes, more than a quarter of those present in Italy, the overcrowding rate is over 150 per cent with peaks of more than 200 per cent in the institutes of Milan 'San Vittore' for men and Brescia 'Canton Mombello'. This means that there are 200 prisoners where there should be 100'. So, the numbers: on 30 June, as the report shows, there were 61.480 thousand inmates in our prisons in 51.234 thousand regular detention places. Women numbered 2.682 thousand, 4.4% of those present, while foreigners numbered 19.213 thousand, 31.3%.Like a hospital with twice as many patientsA practical example is enough to represent the scenario: "To understand the seriousness of the situation, think of a school or a hospital where there are twice as many students or patients as the facilities are able to care for. Overcrowding does not even spare penal institutions for minors. "This now widespread situation," says Patrizio Gonnella, president of Antigone, "is not a negligible element if we talk about the prison system, in fact a prison where the number of detained persons is higher than the regulatory places is a prison where life is bad, where not only spaces are guaranteed but also access to activities, first and foremost work. An overcrowded prison is a place where even the operators find it harder to work, where the fragility of many prisoners cannot be intercepted or attended to as they deserve. Where there are situations of serious overcrowding, the prisoner is increasingly anonymous, more and more a number rather than a person".In 7 months, 58 suicidesAnother element of concern, highlighted in the dossier, concerns the number of people who have taken their own lives behind bars. Suicides in prison have reached 58, including 10 in July alone and 12 in June. "At this rate, the negative record recorded in 2022, when 85 people committed suicide in prison at the end of the year, will be surpassed".Water and insectsThere is then a high aspect that the dossier, produced after 88 visits to detention facilities throughout the country, highlights. "In the Avellino prison, at the time of the visit, running water was not available from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.," the dossier underlines. "The cells showed infiltrations of mould, besides not being equipped with showers. At the women's section, the windows were fitted with Plexiglas screens, thus preventing the passage of air (even on days like the one when the visit took place when the thermometer read 41 degrees)". Then, the presence of cockroaches and bedbugs 'detected respectively in the Bologna and Pavia casecircondarial homes'. Not only that, "in the seventh section of the Regina Coeli institute in Rome, the cells are very small and house 2 or 3 people on a single bunk bed; the toilet and the sink are in a small adjacent room with no intimacy "The proposalsFrom the top management of the voluntary association also an appeal for measures to be taken to change this scenario. "Overcrowding," Patrizio Gonnella stresses, "is not due to natural causes but is the result of government policies. Hence, the requests: 'To tackle this situation,' the dossier goes on to say, 'urgent measures are needed to significantly reduce overcrowding and improve the quality of life in prisons. Measures that cannot be the minimalist ones envisaged in the prison decree, recently approved by the government and now being discussed in the Senate for conversion into law, but that are more courageous: an increase in the number of days of special early release; the decriminalisation of some crimes (and the deletion of the security decree); the liberalisation of telephone calls; the hiring of both police and civil personnel: educators, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and cultural mediators'. From the association also an appeal for the amendment concerning the Opgos to be withdrawn: 'it would be a step backwards compared to the reform that abolished what was the last total asylum institution in Italy'.
