In Campania, there are over 7.700 inmates for 5.500 places. The Campanian Ombudsman: "Too much pre-trial detention and insufficient alternative sentences. The government should act as it has done in the past."
Naples – The situation in Italian prisons, and particularly those in Campania, is an emergency that threatens to explode. Samuele Ciambriello, Ombudsman for Prisoners of the Campania Region and Spokesperson for the National Conference of Ombudsmen, has sounded the alarm, calling the penitentiary system "a social bomb with a short fuse." The numbers confirm a critical situation: despite a real capacity of 5.500, Campania holds 7.751 inmates.
The problem, according to Ciambriello, lies in the excessive use of pre-trial detention.
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The complaint turns into a direct appeal to the government. Ciambriello highlights how approximately 8.000 prisoners in Italy, 900 of whom are in Campania, are serving less than a year. "Why keep them in prison?" he asks, proposing a deflationary measure. "The center-right government should have the courage to do what the Berlusconi government did in 2003 and 2010, especially this year, in the Jubilee of Mercy."
Prison, in the words of the Guarantor, is increasingly seen as a "social landfill," a "poorhouse" where fragility and hardship are concentrated. The data demonstrates this: in Italy, there are 20.000 foreign prisoners (959 in Campania), 17.000 drug addicts (1.704 in Campania), and 4.200 people with mental health issues, often already undergoing treatment before being incarcerated (400 in Campania).
"Prison is the emblem of inequality and the practical embodiment of the failure to apply the Constitution," Ciambriello concludes. The lack of employment and reintegration fosters a forced idleness that exacerbates tensions. Its role, he reiterates, is to ensure that those deprived of their liberty are never stripped of their dignity, promoting initiatives that protect human rights and promote the humanization of punishment.
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