Italy prison suicides spike as post-Covid misery lingers

So far this year 84 prisoners have killed themselves, says ombudsman

ROME:

Suicides in Italian jails have jumped to a 10-year high, the national ombudsman for prisoners said on Friday, noting that three years of the Covid-19 pandemic had made inmates' lives even more miserable.

Prison overcrowding is a chronic problem in Italy and last year then-prime minister Mario Draghi promised a reform of the penitentiary system after the publication of a video showing guards beating inmates in a jail near Naples.

So far this year 84 prisoners have killed themselves, with the most recent case recorded on Thursday, Ombudsman Mauro Palma told Reuters.

"These are grim statistics," he said.

The latest figure compares with an annual average of around 50 suicides over the past 10 years, and around 60 in each of the Covid-plagued years of 2020 and 2021.

Italy's prison suicide rate now stands at around 15.4 per 10,000 inmates, against a median of 5.2 among members of the 46-nation Council of Europe, according to a 2020 report by the pan-European human rights watchdog.

'Lost places'

Palma said inmates who take their own lives are often young, with mental health or substance abuse issues, with no home to go to once released, and lacking a good lawyer who could win them an early release or a home-detention regime.

He said a lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality was contributing to making prisons "lost places".

"Covid has exacerbated all of this," Palma said, noting that the "theoretical and conceptual separation" of prisons from society had also become "a physical one" during the pandemic, when visiting rights were curtailed to contain the virus.

That decision was taken in early 2020, when the coronavirus first struck Italy. As a result, nationwide riots swept through penitentiaries, leaving at least 12 prisoners dead, many from drug overdoses after raiding prison medical supplies.

Palma said Covid-related restrictions on outside contacts had not yet been fully reversed, stressing it was critical for inmates to have interactions with volunteers, social workers and educators, as well as with visiting friends and family.