Prisons, by no means so many inmates since 2013. And now even the IPMs are overcrowded

After all Sea outdoors. The IPMs, for the primary time in years, are bursting on the seams. The jail too: by no means so many inmates from 2013 to right now. The appeals offered in 2023 for degrading residing situations have been 10 thousand, greater than half accepted. He tells it Antigonewithin the newest file revealed right now.

The overcrowded IPMs

There have been 406 minors in penitentiary establishments in June 2023, there are 529 now, for 496 formally obtainable locations, in accordance with the numbers launched by the Nationwide Guarantor of Detainees. Overcrowding of 106.65%. And the inmates, provides Antigone, can be much more if it weren’t for the follow, made simpler by the Caivano decree, of transferring to grownup prisons those that have come of age even when they dedicated the crime as a minor, interrupting the academic relationship. Even with out contemplating the parenthesis of the pandemic that noticed the numbers drop for distinctive causes (on the finish of 2020 there have been 278 younger detainees), the numbers of presences are quickly rising: as of December 31, 2019, the IPMs hosted 369 kids. Greater than half are foreigners, virtually all from North Africa, a lot of them unaccompanied, who come throughout the jail as a result of lack of exterior reception amenities that forces them to a life on the streets. The widespread use of psychotropic medicine has been documented.

Giacomo, at two years previous, lives in Rebibbia jail and solely says “open and shut”

by Alessandra Ziniti

July 21, 2024

Nearly a 3rd of prisons are out of compliance

Amongst adults, overcrowding is 130.4 p.c (with the report of Milan San Vittore: 224.78%). As a result of at a nationwide degree there are 61,246 inmates for 46,953 locations obtainable. There are actually solely 38 out of 190 establishments that aren’t overcrowded. The up to date information, in comparison with these of Antigone, got to Parliament by the guarantor Maurizio D’Ettore.

Too few jail officers: the workers current is 84.97% of the anticipated workers. Whereas from the 88 visits carried out by the Antigone Observatory within the final 12 months it seems that in 27.3% of the establishments visited there have been cells wherein the three sq. meters of flooring area per particular person weren’t assured.

Nevertheless, overcrowding, says Antigone, just isn’t a pure catastrophe. There may be, the affiliation claims, a political accountability: “Confronted with information occasions, all the time categorized as ’emergencies’, the present authorities has adopted a safety and repressive response with the issuing of decree legal guidelines or proposed legal guidelines that will search to resolve the perceived social insecurity with the introduction of many new kinds of crime and the rise in using pre-trial detention. Measures that primarily have an effect on essentially the most susceptible segments of the inhabitants (minors, drug addicts, members of ethnic minorities) and in addition worsen the speed of jail overcrowding and detention residing situations, already under enough requirements”.

Worse as a result of, Antigone assaults, there’s a new wave of crowding on the gates if the brand new safety package deal passes, which punishes, amongst different issues, disobedience and passive resistance: even Gandhi can be arrested”, claims the affiliation.

Degrading residing situations: greater than half of the appeals accepted

With the “Torreggiani” ruling in 2013, the European Courtroom of Human Rights condemned Italy for violating Article 3 of the European Conference, deeming the residing situations of prisoners inhuman and degrading. On that event, Italy launched compensation (in the future of sentence discount for each 10 days of violation or 8 euros per day if one is now not imprisoned) for individuals who have suffered unfair remedy in jail. In 2023, 9,574 requests for sentence reductions have been acquired by Italian probation places of work. 8,234 have been determined and of those 4,731, 57.5%, have been accepted.

Below these situations, within the first six months of 2024, in comparison with final 12 months, there was a rise in acts of self-harm (184 extra), fights (+174), riots (+348), suicides and tried suicides (17 and 73 extra), and assaults on prisons.

Tales: “At 50 levels with no fan. Mice come out of the bidet”

“Immediately my son referred to as me and informed me that they’re holding the inmates locked of their cells virtually all day, with 50 levels and with out followers and final evening my son who suffers from bronchial asthma felt sick and nobody opened the door for him. The scenario is on the restrict,” the mom of an inmate within the Milan Opera jail informed Antigone.

And once more, from Agrigento: “We’re three inmates in a cell, the bidet is used each to scrub ourselves and to scrub the dishes. The showers are shared and just one in two works for 15 inmates within the part. We’re invaded by cockroaches and ants. Mice come out of the bidet. The mattresses are stuffed with mould. Usually and willingly we’re with out water and electrical energy. We purchased the followers at our personal expense. We by no means have entry to the library. There are not any programs to attend. There are not any actions. We girls aren’t thought of by anybody, we’re deserted”.

Within the Avellino jail, on the time of Antigone’s go to, operating water was not obtainable from 10 pm to six am. Within the feminine part, the home windows have been screened with plexiglass, thus stopping the passage of air. Within the seventh part of the Regina Coeli institute, the cells are very small and home 2 or 3 individuals on a single bunk mattress; the bathroom and sink are in a small adjoining room with out privateness. The presence of cockroaches and mattress bugs was detected within the Bologna and Pavia prisons respectively. Specifically, within the isolation part and the psychiatric space of ​​the latter institute, Antigone’s Observers famous unacceptable hygienic-sanitary situations, aggravated by warmth and overcrowding.

Antigone’s proposals

Among the many proposals launched by Antigone to empty the prisons and restore the dignity of the inmates contained in the prisons there may be the rise to 75 days of early launch per semester, each day cellphone calls, ventilators in each cell, the hiring of a thousand cultural mediators and as many educators, multiplying the presence of psychiatrists and medical doctors, closing the isolation sections.