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Prisons in Italy are reaching their limits, with overcrowding rates among the highest in the European Union.

Politiko 2025-07-02 17:30:10

Prisons in Italy are reaching their limits, with overcrowding rates among the

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appears ready to send more people to prison after the security decree was approved.

The new decree, approved by the Italian government in early June, has increased prison sentences and limited alternatives such as supervision, community service or house arrest. However, prisons in Italy are already overcrowded and have reached their limits.

In April, more than 62,000 prisoners were being held in prisons designed to hold only 51,000. The overcrowding rate is now 119%, one of the highest in the European Union. The decree has sparked strong reactions as it intensifies pressure on a prison system that is already showing signs of collapse, as Italian prisons are characterized by understaffing, inadequate infrastructure and underfunded mental health services.

In 2025, there were 33 prisoner suicides, a number approaching the record of 91 suicides in 2024. Suicide incidents occur mainly in solitary confinement, where human contact, psychological support and any concept of rehabilitation are lacking. NGOs and experts warn that the move towards more sentences without social measures is reinforcing isolation and despair.

The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, this week called on the government to respond to the dramatic number of suicides in prison, calling it a real social emergency. However, this is not the first time that Italy has faced a crisis in its prisons. In 2013, the European Court of Justice condemned Italy in the “Torreggiani” judgment for inhumane detention conditions for prisoners. The court’s decision forced the country to take steps to improve conditions and reduce overcrowding, turning its attention to alternatives to imprisonment.

Now the Meloni government is changing things and implementing its reforms through a new decree. The government believes the new decree will have significant benefits, paving the way for the hiring of new guards, the construction of new prisons and the creation of an extraordinary commissioner for the construction of correctional institutions. Meloni described the new law as a step towards public security that will protect the most vulnerable in society.

"We are acting decisively against illegal occupations, accelerating evictions and protecting families, the elderly and honest property owners ," the Italian prime minister said.

Sergio Rastrelli, a senator from Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, dismissed suggestions that the new decree would also increase the number of prisoners. However, critics see this as a policy of repression, which will have disastrous consequences. The deeper problem, as the NGO Antigone reports, is the return of the same individuals to prison. The lack of reintegration and support programs has transformed prison from a tool for rehabilitation into a mechanism for recycling delinquency.