Turin female detainees urge Mattarella for help

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 18 - The female detainees of Turin's prison have written a letter to the penitentiary administration in which they appealed to President Sergio Mattarella to "shake" decision-makers from their "indifference".
    "There is no more time to lose", they said in the letter which was published by Turin daily La Stampa on Sunday.
    The inmates said they refused food on the August 15 Ferragosto national holiday and that they will start a hunger strike once Parliament resumes its activity after the summer break to urge policy makers to approve alternative measures to detention to "reduce overcrowding and to bring back to life the penitentiary community".
    The detainees said in their appeal to the president that the government's prison decree is "useless" - "the system should be completely reformed", they said.
    At the moment there are around 61,000 inmates in Italy's jails, while the official capacity is around 51,000, with an overcrowding rate of 119%. (ANSA).