(updates previous)
The Council of Europe on
Thursday lauded Italy's efforts to ease its chronic prison
overcrowding.
In a ruling, the Council's ministerial committee recognised
the "significant results" Rome has achieved in addressing the
problem.
It was the first time in decades the Council, Europe's
leading human rights body, praised government moves to tackle
the stubborn issue.
The CE ministers' decided to reexamine whether Italy has
complied with a sentence handed down by the European Court of
Human Rights at a later date, at the latest in the June 2015
meeting, but after a thorough progress assessment has been made
next year.
Last year the European Court of Human Rights gave Italy one
year to institute reforms to eliminate inhumane prison
conditions - a time period that ended May 27.
Sources at Italy's highest court last Thursday said a
decree that overhauls Italy's drugs laws and reclassifies
marijuana as a soft rather than a hard drug paves the way for
releasing "thousands of convicted smalltime drug dealers from
prison".
A 2005 law that equated the possession of soft drugs to
hard drugs has been blamed as a contributing factor to severe
overcrowding in Italian prisons.
The Senate on May 14 gave final approval to the decree.
Meanwhile, parliament in early April passed another major
penal reform bill into law aimed at unclogging painfully
overcrowded cells and decriminalizing undocumented immigration.
The new law makes house arrest or detention in a healthcare
facility the primary form of incarceration for lesser crimes,
and the default form of detention for sentences under three
years.
The new law also decriminalizes a number of charges,
including undocumented immigration.
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