Prison suicides: 30 since the beginning of the year, 2024 risks breaking the 2022 record

After 2022, the record-breaking year with 85 ascertained suicides, 2023 and 2024 - emerges from a dossier by Antigone - continue to record impressive numbers. In 2023, at least 70 people took their own lives inside a penal institution. In the first months of 2024, at least 30. "At least" - underlines the association - because there are numerous deaths with causes yet to be ascertained, among which other cases of suicide could therefore be hidden. Although down on the previous year, the 70 suicides in 2023 represent a high number compared to the past. The highest since 2022. Looking back over the last 30 years, only once has this figure been approached with 69 suicides in 2001.

In prison, the presence of a widespread psychic distress remains one of the problems most often reported to the Antigone Observatory: 12% of prisoners (almost 6,000 people) have a serious psychiatric diagnosis. The massive use of psychotropic drugs remains the main tool with which mental health is "managed" in prison: 20% of detained people (more than 15 thousand) regularly use mood stabilisers, antipsychotics and antidepressants, that is the type of psychotropic drugs that can have important side effects; 40% (30 thousand people) use sedatives or hypnotics. In 2023, Antigone recorded 122 Compulsory Health Treatment (TSO) carried out in prison. The association recalls that this is an illegal practice if carried out within prison sections without admitting the person to a hospital (Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment Service - SPDC), as required by law.

The association 'for rights and guarantees in the penal system' presented the XX Report on Detention Conditions on Monday 22 April. As in previous editions, this year's document focuses on the many problems that characterise the detention system in Italy. The first, and this is nothing new, is the record crowding rate: as of 31 March 2024, there were 61,049 detained persons, compared to an official capacity of 51,178 places. The official crowding rate rose to 119.3% nationwide. The highest crowding rates on a regional level continue to be recorded in Puglia (152.1%), in Lombardy (143.9%) and in Veneto (134.4%). Considering the wards provisionally closed, the national average crowding rate rises to 125.6%, in Apulia to 160.1%, in Lombardy to 151.4% and in Veneto to 141.5%. At the end of March, the most crowded individual institutions were Brescia Canton Monbello (209.3%), Lodi (200%), Foggia (195.6%), Taranto (184.8%), Roma Regina Coeli (181.8%), Varese (179.2%), Udine (179%), while overall, the institutions that had a crowding rate above 150% were now 39, scattered throughout Italy, and together they housed 14.313 people.

The growth in admissions continues, and in the last year even more sharply. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, due to the deflationary measures taken during the pandemic, prison admissions had dropped by 7,405. But they immediately rose again. First slowly, with an increase in admissions of 770 in 2021, which was then followed by a growth of 2,062 in 2022 and even 3,970 in 2023. In the last year, therefore, the growth in admissions averaged 331 units per month, an alarming growth rate, which, if it were to be confirmed in 2024 as well, would take us over 65,000 admissions by the end of the year. According to Antigone, the following are behind this trend: the greater length of sentences imposed, the lesser predisposition of surveillance magistrates to grant alternative measures to detention or early release, and the introduction of new criminal laws and police practices that lead to an increase in admissions.

The season of new crimes and penalty increases, the association reconstructs, began with the 'rave decree', continued with the Caivano decree, then with the Ddl Sicurezza, the latter still being examined by Parliament, which punishes the possession of material for the purpose of terrorism (2 to 6 years), the arbitrary occupation of property used as someone else's home (2 to 7 years), amending Article 600-octies of the Criminal Code by inserting inducement and coercion to begging (penalty 2 to 6 years), Article 583-quater of the Penal Code is amended again to punish those who cause bodily harm to a judicial police officer or agent (2 to 5 years), and the offence of rioting in a penal institution is introduced (2 to 8 years).