Italy's President Sergio Mattarella issued an urgent warning about the acute situation in the prison system at a meeting with representatives of the prison administration and prison officers in the Quirinal Palace on June 30. He described the overcrowded prisons as "intolerable" and demanded that they once again fulfill their constitutional mandate: Resocialization instead of crime promotion.
Mattarella described the prison conditions as "uninhabitable" and emphasized that prisons should not be "training grounds for new criminals". He warned that every prisoner reintegrated into society also benefits public safety. The sharp rise in suicides in prison, which he described as a "social emergency", was particularly alarming.
According to current statistics, the Italian prison system has an overcrowding rate of around 135 % - in May 2025, around 62,722 prisoners were distributed across around 46,706 places. In some prisons, such as San Vittore in Milan, up to 1,100 inmates live in officially only around 700 places, which is associated with chronic staff shortages.
Back in May, the human rights association Antigone pointed out that the average cell area in almost 60 prisons was less than 3 m² per person and that many inmates needed sedatives and sleeping pills. At the same time, the audit offices complained about the delayed implementation of the prison plan, which provided for urgently needed expansions and modernizations.
In view of these conditions, Mattarella called for clear action: more resources for prison staff, psychosocial support services, better prison conditions and legal policy measures. In this way, prisons should fulfill their constitutional mandate and contribute to public safety.
