So far this year, 84 inmates have taken their own lives, with the most recent on Thursday
The number of suicides in Italian prisons has soared to a decade high, Italy’s prison ombudsman said today, noting that three years of the Covid-19 pandemic had made life even more miserable for inmates.
Prison overcrowding is a chronic problem in Italy, and last year then-Prime Minister Mario Draghi promised a reform of the prison system after a video was released showing guards beating inmates at a prison near Naples.
So far this year, 84 inmates have committed suicide, with the most recent case occurring on Thursday, prisons ombudsman Mauro Palma told Reuters.
“These are grim statistics,” he said.
The latest figure compares with an annual average of about 50 suicides over the past ten years and about 60 in each of the years marked by Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021.
Italy’s prison suicide rate now stands at about 15.4 per 10,000 inmates, compared with an average of 5.2 among the 46 Council of Europe member states, according to a 2020 report by the pan-European human rights organization.
Palma said inmates who kill themselves are often young, with mental health or substance abuse problems, without a home to go to after release and without a good lawyer who could get them an early release or home detention status.
A lock-them-and-throw-away-the-key mentality, he said, has contributed to prisons becoming places where people feel lost.
“Covid exacerbated all of this,” Palma noted, noting that the “theoretical and conceptual separation” of prisons from society also became “physical” during the pandemic, when visiting rights were restricted to stem the spread of the virus .
This decision was taken at the beginning of 2020, when the coronavirus first hit Italy. As a result, nationwide riots swept prisons, leaving at least 12 inmates dead, many of drug overdoses after a raid on prison medical supplies.
Palma stressed that Covid-related restrictions on outside contacts have not yet been fully reversed, stressing that it is critical for prisoners to have interactions with volunteers, social workers and educators, as well as their friends and families.
Time spent in prison should be as useful and educational as possible, he stressed, adding that of Italy’s total prison population of around 55,000, 10% had left school before the age of 14 and 900 are illiterate.
The Ombudsman also criticized the restrictions on the use of mobile phones, tablets and computers — put in place for security reasons — saying they condemned prisoners to live “in a world without technology, in a world outside of reality”.
Draghi’s promised prison reform has yet to materialize, but this month Justice Minister Carlo Nordio lamented the rise in suicides in parliament and pledged to boost support facilities for prisoners deemed at risk of self-harm.
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
