Prisons, Antigone report: "Conditions on the brink of survival amid extreme heat and record overcrowding."

Overcrowding in Italian prisons continues to grow. As of July 28, a total of 64.741 inmates were held in our prisons, compared to a regulatory capacity of 51.220. This figure, however, ignores the fact that 4.877 places were unavailable at the same date. The actual available places are therefore 46.343, and the system's average overcrowding rate is now 139,7%. This is the figure reported in Antigone's 2026 Mid-Year Report on the situation in Italian prisons. 

But in five regions, Antigone emphasizes, the overcrowding rate is actually over 150%. These are Puglia (180,4%), Molise (165,9%), Basilicata (162,5%), Lombardy (157,9%), and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (152%). And the situation is even more critical in some institutions. In six, inmates now more than double the available places: Lucca (256,8%); Milano San Vittore (223,6%); Latina (220,8%); Foggia (219,9%); Lodi (209,3%); Brescia Canton Monbello (202,7%). And the institutions where overcrowding exceeds 180% now number 25. "These are staggering, shocking numbers," Antigone emphasizes. "Numbers not seen since 2013, the year Italy was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for inhuman and degrading prison conditions. These numbers, as we'll see below, make prison life impossible, both for those detained and those who work there. And in some cases, they even cut short their lives." 

RECORD OVERCROWDING – A serious structural humanitarian emergency, exacerbated by this summer's heatwaves, is the snapshot of Italian prisons captured by Antigone. In 72 visits conducted by Antigone over the past twelve months, it was found that 44% of prisons have cells with less than the minimum floor space limit of 3 square meters per person. This condition, according to the report, is evidenced by the number of complaints accepted by the supervisory courts regarding inhuman or degrading treatment suffered by inmates: 6.539 in 2025, 12% more than in 2024. 

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SUMMER HELL AND LIVING CONDITIONS – During the summer months, prison life becomes a "survival-level" experience, Antigone notes. Over 60% of the inmate population is subjected to the "closed custody" regime (a figure that has increased over the years following the negative steps backwards from the "open cell" and "dynamic surveillance" regimes), spending most of the day in overcrowded cells with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. In some facilities, cell windows are screened, preventing the passage of air. The chronic shortage of fans, which hundreds of indigent inmates cannot afford, turns the cells into veritable ovens. Added to this is the April 23, 2026, Department of Prison Administration directive, which banned refrigerators in cells and corridors, limiting their use to common areas. This prevents inmates from having independent access to fresh water, especially at night, forcing them to rely on staff for help. These conditions are compounded by appalling sanitation and hygiene deficiencies: bedbug infestations in Venice, Monza, and Pisa, and even serious water shortages, as recorded in the prison of Milano Opera, where the water service was interrupted due to a fault, forcing the use of bottled water from the Red Cross. Then, in the summer, with the suspension of school activities and the slowdown of many volunteer activities, "inmates are increasingly isolated in a widespread apathy that is also a trigger for suicide," the association reports. 

MENTAL HEALTH, PSYCHOPHARMACEUTICALS, AND SUICIDES – Desperation leads to tragic consequences: in the first seven months of 2026, at least 38 people took their own lives in prison. The youngest victim was a 21-year-old woman in Trento, the oldest a 73-year-old man in Padua. Half of suicides involve people of foreign origin, highlighting their increased vulnerability. Self-harm is also on the rise, with an average of 26,5 self-harming acts per 100 inmates. In 2026, 9,3% of inmates had serious psychiatric diagnoses, resulting in a chronic lack of hours of support from psychiatrists and psychologists. Of these, 20,5% regularly use mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and antidepressants, and 46% use sedatives or hypnotics. 

As of June 30, 2026, there were 572 juvenile detainees in Italy's 20 juvenile prisons, essentially in line with last year's figures (559 as of June 30, 572 as of December 31). The surge in prison populations, "which increased by 50% with the entry into force of the Caivano Decree" and which has now fully materialized, was "evidently due to the toughening of the criminal justice system and not to a progressive increase in the most serious juvenile crime," highlights Antigone's 2026 Mid-Year Report on the situation in Italian prisons. 

The report notes that the overall number of boys and girls in the care of Juvenile Justice Services continues to grow at a worrying rate, a sign of a culture that is replacing social care, reception, and local support with criminal care. There were 14.151 in October 2022, when the current government took office, and today there are 17.833, a 26% increase. In the first six months of 2026, the number increased by almost a thousand. The expansion of criminal control over minors goes hand in hand with a simplified and alarmist narrative of juvenile issues, which is not reflected in the data. There are 1.368 in juvenile facilities (of which only 16 in public facilities), while 3.611 people are on probation, and 566 are in alternative or substitute measures to detention, security measures, precautionary measures for prescriptions, or home confinement. 

Of the 572 youths in IPM (23 of whom are girls), 227 are foreigners, or nearly 40%. Over 80% are from North Africa (particularly Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt) and are essentially unaccompanied foreign minors who could not find a place in external reception facilities and ended up in prison from living on the streets. Sixty percent of inmates are minors, and 40% are young adults who committed the crime before the age of 18. Among the minors, only 13% have a final conviction, while the rest are in pre-trial detention. There were 562 admissions to prison in the first six months of the year, fewer than those at the end of the period, a sign of the lengthening of detention periods. Compared to the first six months of 2023, the last semester without the Caivano Decree, there were 517 admissions and a lower number of inmates at the end of the period, 409. 48,6% of the crimes attributed to young inmates are property crimes and 23,6% are crimes against the person. 

In the first six months of 2026, there were 87 transfers to adult prisons, a way of addressing the overcrowding that, for the first time in history, has affected juvenile prisons at the expense of young people's lives. "The only other measure implemented by the government was to open three new juvenile facilities, hastily and with often inadequate space, in L'Aquila, Lecce, and Rovigo. This demonstrates the government's inability to create life paths for young people and confirms an exclusively containment model that can only constitute a major defeat for society," Antigone emphasizes in the report. 

The Penitentiary Police force is 15,39% understaffed, with 17,77% fewer administrative staff in prisons, and 932 educators out of a planned 1.036. According to data reported in the transparency reports published by the Ministry and updated as of June 30, 2020, the report states, 15,39% of the planned Penitentiary Police staff is understaffed. The total number of staff actually present is 32.212. The current inmate-to-officer ratio is 2 inmates for every officer, compared to a planned 1,5. Among Italian regions, this ratio varies between 1,3 and 2,4 inmates for every officer; the regions with the highest average ratios are Lombardy, Puglia, and Abruzzo. Regarding administrative staff, out of a planned 4.137, 3.406 administrative staff are currently employed. 17,77% of the planned staff is understaffed. According to the transparency reports, the total number of educators is 932, compared to the 1.036 planned in the staffing plan. The national average of inmates cared for by each officer is 69,5. As with the number of officers, the figure varies across the country: while in Verona the ratio is one educator for every 152,2 inmates, in the Sciacca prison, there are two educators for every 24 inmates, for a ratio of 12 inmates per educator. 

Despite various competitive examinations over the last two years, Antigone emphasizes, growing overcrowding is offsetting the effects of increased staffing, necessitating a rethink of staffing across all staff, not just security, especially with a view to staff turnover and future retirements. The lack of staff also impacts the rights of inmates, for example, by making it more difficult to arrange external medical appointments due to difficulties in organizing escort services, or by lengthening the time it takes to receive responses to requests for prison benefits or to obtain alternative measures. 

The current government's approach, based on "penal populism" and emergency rationale—Antigone emphasizes—has multiplied crimes and increased penalties, "ignoring the structural causes of the crisis. Beyond a few announcements, nothing concrete has happened. The prison construction plan, launched in 2025, was supposed to provide the country with 10.000 new places by the end of 2027. After more than a year and a half, we know for certain that the available places have actually decreased by 424." 

In recent days, when approving a measure regarding drug-addicted prisoners, the Minister of Justice spoke of 10.000 people being allowed to leave. "However, beyond the legal restrictions, beyond the lack of available places in accredited facilities, the law provides annual financial coverage for a maximum of 600 people," the association revealed. "Meanwhile, the emergency remains and grows with each passing day." 

"The prison overcrowding we are documenting," says Antigone president Patrizio Gonnella, "is the direct and dramatic effect of a government that continually creates new crimes and increases penalties. By systematically responding to news events with an emergency and repressive approach, the government is turning our prisons into powder kegs. The promises of emptying through alternative measures have been completely ignored: not only has no one been released thanks to these propaganda task forces, but in the first half of 2026, alternative measures actually decreased by 7%. The only effective measures found," Gonnella emphasizes, "translate into illegitimate solutions, such as the surreal (later withdrawn) invitation from the Tuscany Prison Authority to exceed the regulatory capacity by even adding mattresses to the floor in order to accommodate transfers from Sollicciano prison, recently seized for inhumane conditions. Investing in reintegration is the only way out for a system that, with at least the 60% recidivism rate among prisoners today only reproduces further marginalization and crime." 

(Adnkronos)