Lawyers criticise cabinet draft to reduce prison overcrowding – TopNews

Italian criminal lawyers on Saturday sharply criticized a reform that the government is currently considering. It would examine alternative measures to detention, including house arrest or probation, for prisoners who have not been convicted of serious crimes and have less than a year left to serve.


“The government has maneuvered itself into a dead end from which it will be difficult to escape,” said the president of the Union of Italian Criminal Chambers, Francesco Petrelli.


“The adoption of house arrest for prisoners serving a short sentence (about 8,000 prisoners) requires a complex legal assessment and the overcoming of objective obstacles.


“According to government experts, no more than 200 house arrests could be implemented at this time – an insignificant number compared to the urgently needed deflationary measures,” Petrelli added.


“The government's prison-focused policy is a serious step backwards, also for the safety of citizens, and it is inevitably doomed to failure,” added Petrelli, stressing the position of criminal lawyers who “have always supported policies and laws that favor the implementation of alternative measures to prison.”


He added that the union he represents had not seen the draft text the government is working on.


However, it is “surprising that after issuing and implementing a prison decree that was supposed to solve the problem,” the government “has recognized that new, urgent interventions are needed.”


The measure, which was discussed on 7 August at a meeting between Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and the National Guarantor for Persons Deprived of Liberty, is currently being examined by the Ministry of Justice.


To solve the overcrowding crisis, which has led to a record wave of suicides among prisoners and guards, the government is proposing more alternatives to prison and shorter prison sentences.

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