A 92-year-old inmate, probably the oldest in Italy, was released from Poggioreale prison. He left his cell to serve an alternative sentence in a community. At the end of October, the Naples Surveillance Office recognized 193 days of early release as compensation.
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This is what is provided for by Article 35 ter of the Penitentiary System for those who have lived in inhumane conditions, referring to the period from 18 September 2018 to 10 October 2024 spent in Poggioreale.
The news was released by the guarantor of prisoners of Campania, Samuele Ciambriello, who explained how this rule was introduced into the Italian penitentiary system following the Torreggiani ruling of 8 January 2013, issued by the Strasbourg Court for the violation of human rights.
Ciambriello reiterated the importance of this release, underlining how it re-proposes the problem of overcrowding and inhumane conditions in which the prison population finds itself, highlighting how unacceptable it is that a man over ninety years old has lived in crowded and narrow cells.
He had been convicted of sexual crimes at the age of 87
The prisoner was not a murderer or a mafioso, but a man sentenced to seven years to 87 years for a sexual crime, for which it had not been possible to activate alternative measures due to the nature of the crime. “Every story is different,” Ciambriello said, “and in this case, detention seemed senseless both because of the advanced age and because it was difficult to consider the elderly person a danger to society.”
The prisoner spent years in a cell with other inmates in conditions deemed inhumane, as recognized by the surveillance judge of Naples. The Poggioreale facility has already been criticized by the European Court of Justice in 2013 for inhumane detention conditions.
Ciambriello added that the prison also houses a 72-year-old inmate with multiple sclerosis and several people with mental disorders, representing a forgotten reality that deserves different treatments.
There are 7327 inmates in the prisons of Campania
According to the most recent data, the prisons of Campania host 7.327 inmates, of whom 757 have short sentences, often for minor crimes. A recent report by the Antigone association highlighted that in Poggioreale, with a capacity of 1.571 places, there are 2.126 inmates, exceeding the limit by more than 500 units.
Overcrowding leads to conditions where prisoners have less than 3 square meters of space each and can only leave their cells for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.
Article published on November 14, 2024 - 08:39
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