Due to overcrowding, a coronavirus outbreak inside prisons would make the situation unmanageable. Meanwhile, riots are multiplying.
Update 10 March, 9:30 pm – A total of 12 inmates have died in Italian prisons following the riots. Nine of them lost their lives in Modena; the other three in Rieti. There have also been numerous episodes of violence against prison police officers.
From potential to actual. Riots and protests in Italian prisons are now a reality. Inmates are in a state of unrest in 27 penitentiaries spread across the country. Many are calling for pardons and amnesty, citing fear of coronavirus infection. Others are protesting because the measures introduced by the government to combat the emergency include a series of restrictions on visits from relatives. After yesterday's violent unrest at Modena prison — which, for the same reasons, led to the deaths of six inmates — rebellions were recorded today at major penitentiaries including San Vittore in Milan, Rebibbia in Rome and Ucciardone in Palermo.
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Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede will address Parliament on Wednesday 11 March at 5 pm. Meanwhile, six inmates died yesterday in prison in Modena following Sunday afternoon's riot. This was announced in a statement from the Modena police headquarters. Three died in the city's prison and three others in the penitentiaries to which they had been transferred: in Parma, Alessandria and Verona. Two deaths are believed to be linked to the use of drugs, while the third inmate was found in a cyanotic state, the cause of which is unknown.
The other inmates who died are believed to have died of psychotropic drug overdoses. They had been transferred shortly after the violent protests, which had also affected the infirmary, from which several medications had been taken. The worst situation, however, was recorded in Foggia, where a large number of escapes from the prison in revolt have been reported. Four of them were stopped on the Bari ring road: they had stolen a car, which was intercepted by law enforcement thanks to the licence plate number. Meanwhile, the Foggia prison was reportedly still in the hands of the rioters.
As in Modena, inmates are calling for pardons and amnesty, but the unrest does not appear to stem solely from the emergency created by the coronavirus: the remand prison currently holds 608 inmates, a figure above the optimal capacity of 365. There is chaos too at San Vittore prison in the centre of Milan, where the protest erupted on Monday morning: inmates took control of an entire wing, destroying the medical units. Once the protest is over, the transfer of inmates will pose a problem: several sections of the prison are, in fact, unusable. This worsens the situation in Lombardy, which has around eight thousand inmates but only six thousand places.
Perhaps coronavirus will not reach prisons. But if it does, the measures for managing the covid-19 epidemiological emergency in Italian penitentiaries would prove virtually unworkable due to severe overcrowding. While even Iran has introduced alternatives to imprisonment, in Italy the directives stipulate that, in the event of infection, inmates must be placed in single cells for health isolation. It is difficult, however, to understand how this could be organised, given that, according to the latest figures, Italy has approximately 61,500 inmates for a total of 47,231 actual places. And there are no empty cells — if anything, there are unusable ones.
Listen to "04. Voci dal carcere, quando l'isolamento si trasforma in un ponte" on Spreaker.
The decree-law issued on 2 March stipulated, on the one hand, that "the territorial branches of the national health service shall provide the Ministry of Justice with appropriate support to contain the spread of coronavirus infection." This had already been happening in the preceding days, "with tents set up outside various penitentiaries in Lombardy, where the so-called 'newly arrived' inmates who are about to enter prison are screened," explains Carlo Lio, ombudsman for inmates and those deprived of their liberty in Lombardy.
On the other hand, the same decree established that for 30 days in institutions located in "red zones," relatives may not access prisons, and visits take place by telephone or video call. "Where this is technically possible — and very often it is not," says Lio.
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"This emergency is compounding an already compromised situation," explains Lio, "due to overcrowding, with eight thousand inmates against a capacity of six thousand in Lombardy." Furthermore, it falls to the supervisory magistrate — who must take responsibility for the decision in each case, including cases of infection — to assess whether day-release permits or semi-liberty orders, meaning daytime releases from prison, should be suspended or confirmed. "The measures adopted are also understandable, but they isolate inmates and must be applied with the greatest attention to the specifics of individual situations, so as not to risk going beyond what is strictly necessary, isolating from the outside world even further those who already live in a restricted way." Feeling abandoned in prison can indeed be devastating.
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"In order to comply with current regulations," continues the Lombard ombudsman for those deprived of their liberty, "I have suspended my visits to regional prisons to hear inmates' needs." Yet from some institutions there are reports of closures that are unjustified with respect to the sole objective of limiting the spread of the virus. Closures that, as the national ombudsman for inmates' rights also notes, "also affect the rights of incarcerated persons and appear to be the result of unreasonable alarmism that feeds back on itself, generating ever-growing alarm that has no basis or justification in terms of the effectiveness of the measures."
"We need to rethink prison at a more fundamental level than the emergency we are experiencing; we must place the dignity of inmates at the centre by reducing the number of people held behind bars," concludes Carlo Lio. Semi-liberty measures — which currently entail a daily risky passage in and out of prisons — could in many cases be converted into probationary placements with social services. In this way, inmates would spend their days entirely within external communities. It is a matter of civic responsibility, with the aim of everyone cooperating in the same direction.
