18-year-old dies in fire at Milan prison

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 6 - Prison guards union Uilpa said Friday that an 18-year-old Egyptian man died in a fire at Milan's San Vittore jail overnight.
    The case is set to heighten alarm about conditions and overcrowding in Italian jails, following a spate of suicides among inmates and a series of recent episodes of unrest.
    Uilpa Secretary General Gennarino De Fazio said it seems that the victim and his cell mate started the fire, saying this had become a frequently used form of protest in prisons "We do not believe it was suicide, but it is yet another death up top of the 70 inmates and seven prison officers who have taken their own lives since the beginning of the year in what increasingly sounds like a war bulletin," he said. The government has launched an emergency plan for Italy's prisons.
    Prison-rights association Antigone on Friday called for a parliamentary commission of inquiry to be set up, saying the teenager's death showed the "deep crisis" the penitentiary system was in, with an overcrowding rate of 131% (ANSA).