A suicide every five days. And then a shortage of personnel and a greater need for interventions to strengthen health care. For Italian prisons, 2022 is what the associations that deal with the rights of prisoners call “the black year”. In 2022, 84 inmates committed suicide behind bars. The report was drawn up by the volunteers of the Antigone association, a partnership that has been dealing with rights and guarantees in the penal system for years.
Worse than 2009
According to the volunteers who follow the events concerning the prison world on a daily basis, “this year, about 20 times more people have taken their own lives than in the free world“. Not only that, “one prisoner out of every 670 present killed himself”. To find a high negative figure it is necessary to take a step back 13 years. «The previous negative record was in 2009, when there were 72 in total. But at the time there were over 61,000 prisoners, 5,000 more than today».
Worrying sign that should not be underestimated
Recalling those years and making a comparison with today, Patrizio Gonnella, president of Antigone underlines that «at the time we were on the eve of the period which then led Italy to be condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for violating article 3 of the European Convention, for inhuman and degrading treatment. Some parliamentary initiatives were taken. It is unjustifiable not to see in the 84 suicides this year an equally worrying sign of the conditions in the country’s prisons”.
Overcrowded prisons
Another element that the volunteers highlight concerns the overcrowding of prison facilities which “after the deflation of attendance following the pandemic, is returning to worrying levels”. “There are almost 57,000 detainees. There are 51,000 regulatory posts, even if we know that around 4,000 of those counted are unavailable – continues Gonnella -. We can therefore say that today there are about 9,000 more people in Italian prisons than the regulatory capacity. This means adding beds in cells not designed to house that number of inmates.”
Spaces too small
Then there are the evaluations carried out by the Antigone Observatory after the visit to 99 prisons during 2022. «In 39% of the institutions cells were found where the minimum parameter of 3 square meters of floor area per person was not respected. Entering even just a few minutes in a cell where there isn’t even this minimal space is a claustrophobic experience – Gonnella underlines. Especially where the cells are shared by 5-6 people ». This evaluation also includes the facilities and services. «In 44% of the prisons Antigone found cells without hot water, in 56% cells without a shower (which should have no longer existed since 2005), in 10% there were cells in which the heating did not work, and in as many as 6 institutes (9%) there were cells in which the toilet was not in an area separated from the rest of the cell by a door”.