SOS prisons, 3 square metres of space and a record number of juvenile prisoners

Juvenile prisons are exploding while, in general, in at least thirty institutes the spaces for prisoners are reduced to cells with less than three square metres per person. Breathless' is the title of the dossier released by Antigone: a summary that aims to describe the current situation in Italian prisons. According to the numbers collected in the report, overcrowding with the lack of adequate facilities remains one of the main problems, linked to the lack of adequate psychological support and effective reintegration into the world of work outside the institutions.

With more than 62 thousand prisoners - a slight decrease compared to the previous year - even taking into account the places that are not available due to uninhabitable or renovated facilities, the average effective crowding rate is at least 133%: in two years, the effective capacity has decreased by 900 places while the number of prisoners has increased by 5 thousand. Only 36 prisons out of 189 are not overcrowded: 58, on the other hand, have a rate above 150%. On this data, the black jersey goes to the San Vittore institute, followed by those of Foggia and Lucca. And in thirty institutes out of the 95 visited by Antigone's representatives "there were cells in which three square metres of floor space per person were not guaranteed, in 12 there were cells without heating and in 43 prisons cells without hot water". It does not get any better, according to the association, for the new prefabricated pavilions on the way: "They are overcrowded already by design, i.e. little more than 5 square metres per person".

The focus on the juvenile system reveals "risks of implosion between overcrowding and tensions" and a negative record: there are 611 juveniles detained in these institutes, 27 of whom are girls (as at 30 April), with a growth of 54% in two years (half are unaccompanied foreign minors), while 189 over 18-year-olds have been transferred to adult penitentiaries. Moreover, 9 out of 17 juvenile penal institutes (Ipm) are overcrowded: at the Beccaria in Milan and in Cagliari the rate is 150%. Of the approximately 2,700 women prisoners, 80% are in female sections within male prisons. Eleven children live in prison with their mothers, nine of them foreigners.

As of October 2023, there were 66 male inmates who had formally declared their homosexuality. Of these, half were in 'promiscuous protected sections', i.e. in sections intended for offenders causing social disapproval (e.g. sexual offences), or in communal sections. In contrast, there were 70 trans women, all held in male prisons.

According to Antigone, 0.4 per cent of foreigners in Italy are in prison, they represent 31.6 per cent of the prison population: Lombardy (20.8 per cent) and Lazio (9.8 per cent) are the regions where they are most present. The number of cultural mediators is minimal: 1.7 for every hundred foreign inmates. In general, there are 963 educators, on average less than one for every 64 inmates, while 96 prison directors are missing. Less than one in three prisoners work, almost all for the Dap and only 0.4 per cent (249) are employed by private companies. Other dramatic data concern mental health in prison: in 2024, self-harm increased by 4.1% compared to 2023. With 91 suicides, 2024 is the year with the most prison deaths ever.