An 87-year-old Neapolitan man is jailed for car theft.

Florence – He's 87 years old, born in Naples in 1939, has no teeth, and for the past three days, his home has been a cell in the clinical ward of Sollicciano prison. For him, the canteen at the Florence penitentiary must only serve liquids. His crime? A final conviction for a car theft committed three years ago.

The story, revealed by the Corriere Fiorentino, raises profound humanitarian and legal questions, transforming a case of petty crime into yet another symbol of the short-circuiting of Italian justice. The elderly man, who has no relatives, had until recently lived in a public housing project on Via della Chiesa.

Faced with the need to leave the facility, the city's social workers suggested transferring him to a residential care facility in Castelfiorentino. The man rejected this option, fearful of the distance from Florence, but unaware that the alternative would be a prison.

Unions raise alarm: "Even those over 90 are being held in jail."

Unfortunately, the case of the eighty-seven-year-old from Sollicciano is not a bolt from the blue. Just two days ago, prison police unions launched a harsh and detailed indictment, denouncing the structural presence of elderly inmates in Italian prisons, including some in their nineties. This humanitarian emergency forces officers and facilities to stand in for nurses and healthcare assistants in environments completely incompatible with the conditions of old age.

"Florence prison cannot be a residential care facility," argues Stefano Cecconi of the Pantagruel association. "Serious reflection is needed before deciding to send an 87-year-old man to a cell." For its part, the Department of Social Policies at Palazzo Vecchio has already taken steps to find an alternative reception facility and request his transfer, given the man's clear incompatibility with prison conditions.

Heat emergency and the clash over transfers

The incident comes amidst an already heated debate. A few days ago, also in Sollicciano, a 75-year-old inmate died at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital after falling ill in his cell, a result of the scorching heat currently plaguing the facility.

Meanwhile, a race against time is underway to transfer approximately 250 inmates following the seizure of seven sections of the same prison, ordered by the investigating judge and confirmed on Friday by the Court of Review due to the unsuitability of the premises. While 160 inmates have already left the facility, the final 90 are expected to be moved before mid-August.

However, the institutional dispute remains open: the review judges have criticized the timing and methods of the operations, recalling that the choice of destination is the sole responsibility of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP), not the judiciary. For its part, the Ministry of Justice is considering the appeal to the Supreme Court, continuing to dispute the prosecutor's argument that the cells were equated with "workplaces" to justify their seizure.