More jail places are needed to ease chronic overcrowding in Italian prisons that has contributed to a spate of suicides that has so far claimed 15 lives this year, Premier Giorgia Meloni said Monday.
She said the overcrowding couldn't be solved by decriminalization as advocated by opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein.
"I think it can be resolved by boosting prison capacity, and hiring and supporting prison staff as the government has done, because that is the only serious response that a State can give," she said on a Japan trip.
Prison unions have complained of chronic understaffing as well as overcrowding and poor conditions as factors contributing to inmate malaise.
The latest two prison suicides came Sunday at Verona and Caserta.
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