Jailed drug addicts should go into rehab - Delmastro

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 13 - Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro on Monday announced plans to move jailed drug addicts into recovery communities in order to relieve the pressure on Italy's overcrowded prisons.
    Speaking in an interview to Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper, he said the proposal has the backing of the government and Justice Minister, Carlo Nordio.
    It goes in the direction of premier "Giorgia Meloni's stated aim to achieve not only certainty of punishment but also greater guarantees for citizens," said Delmastro of the prime minister's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, adding that existing communities run by third-sector organisations would be involved.
    The Italian prison population currently stands at 56.319 against an official capacity of 51.285, and 30% of prisoners have a drug addiction, Delmastro told Il Messaggero.
    The Radical Party welcomed the "common sense" proposal, saying it had had been pushing for similar measures for more than a decade.
    "There is no doubt that drug addicts should not be in prison, just as psychiatric patients should not be in prison," said party secretary and treasurer Maurizio Turco and Irene Testa.
    "Moving drug-addicted inmates from a prison to a closed community may alleviate prison overcrowding, but it is above all a measure of justice to them," said Luana Zanella, Lower House Greens and Left Alliance whip, also calling for "a thorough review of the drug law and its repressive approach, which over the years has proven to be completely ineffective".
    Osvaldo Napoli of the centrist Azione party led by Carlo Calenda hailed the proposal for "recognizing that the binomial drug addict=prison is outdated".
    "The drug addict is no longer a person to be arrested but a person to be treated. And that is no small thing," he concluded.
    (ANSA).