Prisons: suspension of criminal defence lawyers’ hearings announced from 23 to 29 September

The Executive Committee of the Union of Italian Criminal Defence Lawyers (Ucpi) has announced a suspension of court hearings from 23 to 29 September. The UCPI condemns the lack of institutional responses regarding the case of the unlawful recording of conversations between prisoners and their defence lawyers at the ‘Capanne’ prison in Perugia, which lasted for approximately six months, in breach of the provisions of the Constitution regarding the confidentiality of communications and the right to a defence, as well as being contrary to the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning fair trial and the protection of private and family life.

A decision taken “because, despite the commitment made by the Minister of Justice on 4 June 2026 to launch an investigation through the General Inspectorate, more than two months later, no information has been provided, either by the Minister or by the Chief Prosecutor of Perugia, despite repeated requests,” the statement reads. This matter forms part of a broader context of the erosion of safeguards, which includes the deadlock over the reform concerning the seizure of digital devices, attempts to expand the use of wiretapping, the extension of police preventive powers to include minors, the proposed amendment to age of criminal responsibility and the persistent crisis of prison overcrowding (139.5% of actual capacity, 33 suicides in 2026)’. ‘On the basis of these premises,’ emphasises the Union of Criminal Chambers, ‘the Executive Committee has resolved to abstain from criminal hearings from 23 to 29 September 2026, calling on the Minister of Justice to disclose the findings of the investigations into the extremely serious events in Perugia, and urging the government and Parliament to resume reforms to safeguard due process and to tackle the prison crisis, whilst reserving the right to take further political and institutional action’.”

On the same day, another complaint was also lodged: one concerning record overcrowding in the prisons of Lazio. In 2025, the rate stood at 149 per cent in Lazio, compared with the national average of 139 per cent. And the Ombudsman’s office received over 3,600 individual complaints, 2,500 more than it was able to deal with in 2023. The figure emerges from the annual report by Stefano Anastasìa, the Ombudsman for persons subject to measures restricting personal liberty in the Lazio Region, presented today in Rome.

Anastasìa, having reached the end of her second term of office, has taken stock of the detention system in Lazio, including overcrowding, shortcomings in the prison healthcare system and difficulties in safeguarding prisoners’ rights, and outlined a decade of work (2016–2026), reflecting on the challenges and progress made within the region’s detention system. Among the topics covered, Anastasìa examined in depth the situation in prisons, in Rems (residences for the enforcement of security measures) and in CPRs (detention centres for repatriation) in Rome’s Ponte Galeria and Djader in Albania, where she travelled in the summer of 2025 on a monitoring visit with the Ombudsman of Rome.

The Data Protection Authority highlighted the urgent need for policies to reduce the prison population and to strengthen alternative measures , stressing that increasing the number of places in REMS and in prisons will not resolve the underlying problems unless the root causes are addressed, such as the lack of local support services and a mental health system that is too fragile. Anastasìa began by highlighting the complexity of the work carried out in a difficult context, characterised by limited human resources and increasing responsibilities, and emphasised the importance of analysing not only the figures, but also daily practices and living conditions within detention facilities.