The presentation of the new report for the year 2016 on the state of Italian prisons, put together by Associazione Antigone, was made to the Chamber of Deputies on July 28, 2016. Santi Consolo, the head of the Prison Administration Department, attended the presentation and press conference.
One of the first data that stands out, says Patrizio Gonnella, Antigone's president, is the overall increase in the prison population, which stood at 54,072 inmates on June 30, 2016, compared with 52,754 on the same date in 2015. This is no legislative explanation for this rise, as no significant changes have taken place in the judicial system that would such an increase.
1 in 3 in pre-trial detention
By analyzing the types of detainees, however, the situation becomes clearer. Of the 54,072 inmates, 18,908, or 34.9 percent of the total prison population, are in pre-trial detention. This means that more than a third of the prison population is still awaiting trial and, until proven otherwise, not guilty of the alleged offenses.
Precautionary measures are applied mostly to immigrants, especially in the first phase of judgment: at the reporting date, foreign prisoners was estimated at 18,166, or 33.5 percent of the prison population, compared to 17,207 (32.6 percent) on June 30, 2015.
The growth of the prison population appears, therefore, "the outcome of the work of the police and the judiciary, more oriented to the use of prison than in previous years. There is probably less use of the precautionary measure considering the prison overcrowding is less severe than it has been," says Gonnella.
Keeping faith
Another important finding concerns the nationality of foreign prisoners: while the majority of foreign prisoners used to be Romanian, most — 17 percent — are now Moroccan.
Finally, the data on the religious beliefs of the prison population: 29,658 are followers of the Catholic faith, 6,138 are Muslims, 2,263 are Orthodox Christians, and fewer than 300 practicing other religions. These figures are particularly significant, Santi Consolo stressed during the press conference, because it is important to understand the risks and causes of religious radicalization in prison.
The DAP leader also said that it is necessary to ensure the practice of religion to all, so as to curb radicalization in this way, and to provide spiritual support to prisoners who request it.
Our proposal
Ending the use of precautionary measures like pre-trial detention in favor of alternatives to prison and probation for those entitled to it was the hot topic discussed by Antigone during the press conference.
According to the findings, there are 19,812 detainees who must serve a remaining sentence of three or fewer years and could be candidates for alternative measures. In percentage terms, 56.2 percent of all convicted criminals are made to serve a short sentence that could be easily replaced by a measure other than prison.
Alternative measures to prison are also effective: according to Antigone's data, only 0.79 percent of those who made use of alternative measures of detention in 2015 committed a new offense upon release.
In this regard, the Antigone Association Launches 20x20 Campaign, which calls for Italy's prison administration to, by the year 2020, allocate 20 percent of its financial resources to the implementation of alternative measures to prison.
The presentation of the report ended with the launch of a new campaign for the reform of the isolation practice, both disciplinary and judicial, and with the presentation of the draft law requiring: the use of isolation practice only to cases of extreme necessity; the limitation of the judicial isolation (or the isolation imposed on persons in preventive measures that currently does not have a time limit while the disciplinary isolation is limited to a maximum of 15 days) within 15 days; changing the composition of the disciplinary committee that determines the isolation; other measures in the field of isolation.
