Italy is going to build 15,000 more prison cells to help with overcrowding
Italy is planning to add 15,000 new prison cells and other types of rehab to deal with overcrowding and growing worries about the safety and well-being of prisoners.
There are too many people in Italy’s prisons, and the government has announced a big new plan to fix the problem. They promise to add up to 15,000 more prison beds and give addicts more options besides jail time.
Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, revealed the changes late Tuesday night. She said that in a fair society, prisons should “adjust their capacity to the number of people who need to serve their sentences.” The news came as public concern over prison conditions grew, especially after a record number of suicides among inmates last year and complaints that facilities without air conditioning were too hot to bear.
Italy had 62,986 prisoners in jails that were only meant to hold 47,289 as of July 15. This is an occupancy rate of 133%, which is one of the highest in Europe. The World Prison Brief database says that only Cyprus and France do worse.
The Italian government has come up with a €758 million ($890 million) plan to add nearly 10,000 new prison beds by 2027 in order to deal with the problem. In a separate plan, an extra 5,000 spaces will be added over the next five years, but the price for that has not yet been set.
Along the same lines, the government approved a draft law that would let many prisoners who have problems with drug or alcohol addiction spend their time in rehabilitation centers instead of regular prisons. The law, which still needs to be approved by government, is meant to get people with health problems out of systems that punish them and into ones that help them get better.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said, “These are people who need treatment rather than criminals who need punishment.” He also said that almost a third of the people in Italy’s prisons are addicted to drugs.
Nordio also talked about plans that were made public last week to let up to 10,000 prisoners who are almost done with their terms be considered for house arrest or probation. A committee has been set up to speed up the evaluation process, but the releases are likely to happen slowly because of political concerns, especially since Meloni’s right-wing government has always been strict on law and order.
The Italian government passed a law last year that was supposed to make prisons better, but some people say it hasn’t made much of a difference. The most important step in recent years to ease the burden on the prison system and move some of the focus to rehabilitation and humane treatment is the new set of reforms.
