'Surveillance courts need additional 1,000 magistrates'

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 8 - The situation in surveillance courts in Italy is "dramatic", said on Thursday Giovanni Maria Pavarin, a former surveillance judge who headed the National coordination of surveillance magistrates. A total of "236 magistrates are employed in the 29 courts that have to decide a very high number of cases, we need an additional 1,000" magistrates, he explained.
    "They work incessantly but, as of today, some 100,000 cases need to be examined and these only concern convicted felons who are free and need to serve terms of four years or less", said Pavarin.
    "These people are waiting to know their fate - prison or community-based alternatives", he concluded. (ANSA).