Italy recorded a grim new milestone last week as it was confirmed that a 21-year-old man had become the 85th inmate to take their own life this year, surpassing the previous record of 84 deaths by suicide in 2022.
"The overall situation in the prisons has been out of control for some time," said Gennarino De Fazio, general secretary of the prison officers' union. "Unfortunately it's getting worse every day."
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, Italian prisons currently house 62,427 inmates, more than 10,000 above maximum capacity. Overcrowding is of particular concern in the many historic prisons that are in desperate need of modernisation. "If 1,150 people take a shower instead of 700 to 800, the heating system may not work any more," said Claudia Clementi, governor of the 17th century Regina Coeli prison in Rome.
Violence is also endemic, both among inmates and towards them. At a prison in Trapani, Sicily, 11 officers have been arrested and another 14 suspended after video footage emerged of guards beating prisoners, one of several current scandals involving the abuse of inmates.
The Italian parliament passed a "prison decree" in August, but detractors say the measures in it don't go anywhere near far enough. For instance, the decree provides for the recruitment of 1,000 additional prison officers – well below the 7,000 needed.
"It's like trying to repair a house that has structural problems and is about to fall," Michele Miravalle of Antigone, an Italian NGO that monitors prison conditions, told Euronews. "Instead of intervening on the foundations, you only fixed the windows." | 
