Prisons, Campania guarantor report: overcrowding and drugs drama

Carchers, Campania guarantor report: overcrowding and drugs drama. The Guarantor of prisoners Samuele Ciambriello presents the six-monthly report on the data of the Campania prisons to the Regional Council.

The prison world in Campania has paid a high price for the pandemic in terms of lives. The coronavirus emergency has further exacerbated the already serious problems of the prison reality, starting with overcrowding, and has highlighted the need to resort to alternative measures to prison”.

The emergency issue that emerges from the six-monthly report is drug addiction; out of 6853 inmates, 1356 are drug addicts, 60% of our inmates use psychotropic drugs. The right to health of inmates remains a serious problem, as is that of overcrowding. Just think that the total number of inmates present in the prisons of Calabria, 2104, coincides with that of the inmates in the prison of Poggioreale alone”.

The League is nominating Giogiò Cutolo's mother for the Campania regional elections. July 31, 2025 - 12:35

This is what was stated by the Campania Guarantor of people subjected to restrictive measures of personal freedom, Samuele Ciambriello, who, this morning, presented the 2022 half-yearly report on the state of detention in Campania, in the Chamber of the Regional Council of Campania.

The report was introduced by the speech of the President of the Regional Council of Campania, Gennaro Oliviero, and by the spokesperson of the National Conference of Regional and Territorial Guarantors, Stefano Anastasia. Among those present in the Chamber: Carmine Renzulli, Public Prosecutor of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Elisabetta Garzo, President of the Court of Naples, Patrizia Mirra, President of the Surveillance Court of Naples, some prison directors including Colonel Rosario Del Prete, Director of the military prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, representatives of voluntary associations and some regional Councilors.

“As for healthcare for prisoners, it remains another major emergency in the prison system, just think about one fact: for 6853 prisoners there are only 55 beds in hospitals in Campania” – added Ciambriello – for which "we need to intervene to solve this serious problem, for example by moving, where possible, health services to prison. In general, focus on alternative measures to prison and on decriminalization, on a model that limits prison only to the most serious cases and that aims it at social inclusion".

“The PNRR provides significant funds allocated to prisons, a positive circumstance that, however, in the absence of planning, risks being wasted, furthermore the 14 million from the Public Works Department have inexplicably not been used, as planned, for the Poggioreale prison” – added Ciambriello, for whom “it is necessary to focus on alternative measures to detention and on a greater presence of support personnel, volunteers and operators, who can contribute to the performance of those activities that are fundamental for the social reintegration of prisoners”.

“In one semester the Guarantor's office was able to meet 628 detainees – said Anastasia -, this highlights the importance of this role, which allows to connect prisons with institutions and with society and to bring out the main problems of the prison world and to resolve them, in this sense it is important to have a political vision that does not focus exclusively on penalization and that has a strong sensitivity on the theme of the re-educational purpose of the sentence and on the objective of the social reintegration of the prisoner".

“The data that emerged from the six-monthly report of the Prisoners' Guarantor, namely the number of drug-addicted prisoners in our prisons, 1356 or one in three, is explosive and highlights a serious emergency in our prison system that is combined with those of overcrowding and health services” – Oliviero underlined – who added: “as institutions and as politicians we must intervene to resolve these emergencies to make prison a place where the fundamental rights of the person are guaranteed and to direct it towards the recovery of prisoners and their social reintegration”.