Italian prison authority DAP said Wednesday that the country's chronically overcrowded jails were being packed even tighter with 400 fresh inmates every month, aggravating a spate of 15 suicides so far this year for which overcrowding has been blamed as one of the main causes.
"We objectively have an increase of about 400 more inmates every month in Italian prisons," said the head of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP), Giovanni Russo, speaking to the House justice committee.
"As of today we have 60,814 inmates," Russo went on.
"Of these, 43,000 are common and the others are divided intohigh security and 41 bis (tough mafia regime).
"But we are still far from the numbers that triggered theso-called Torreggiani sentence'," said Russo, referring to a2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) thatcondemned Italy for cruel and inhuman conditions caused by anovercrowding rate of 148%, with over 66,500 inmates in what wasthen a slightly smaller-capacity system.Premier
Giorgia Meloni said Monday that more jail places areneeded to ease the overcrowding that has contributed to the spate of suicides.
She said the overcrowding couldn't be solved by decriminalization and finding more alternatives to incarcerationas 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," Meloni said on a Japan trip.
The latest two prison suicides came Sunday at Verona and Caserta.
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