Italy has seen a new record 59 jail
suicides this year, prisoner rights' group Antigone said Friday.
More than one inmate has taken their life every four days, and
15 in August alone, or one every two days, the association said.
Antigone urged more attention and action on this phenomenon,
which it said had seen a "concerning acceleration" this year.
Just two thirds into the year, in fact, last year's whole toll
of 57 deaths has already been surpassed.
"This year's numbers engender a full-blown alarm, not having
precedents in previous years," said Antgone.
"It's not easy to find explanations. And it is not easy to find
solutions either. We know that prison life is hard, it causes
suffering, it spells solitude, it produces de-socialization and
illnesses.
"We must do all we can to modernize it, make it more to the
measure of men and women, to reduce the distance between inside
and outside".
Antigone said the Italian suicide rate overall was amongst the
lowest in the world but jail suicide rates were 10th in the
world and 16 times the rate outside of prison in Italy.
Of the 59 people who took their own lives in prison this year so
far, four were women, a high number since women account for just
4.2% of the prison population, Antigone went on.
In 2020 one woman killed herself in jail and in 209 none did.
The average age of prison suicides is 37, and the bracket most
represented is 30-39, with 21 suicides this year.
This is followed by the 20-29 age group with 16.
Some 28 foreign inmates committed suicide this year, or 45.7% of
cases, much more than their percentage among the prison
population, which is less than a third.
Chronic overcrowding and poor services have been among the
factors blamed for Italy's high prison suicide rate.
The national guarantor of persons deprived of their personal
freedom called the spate of suicides a "slaughter" on Friday.
He said the 59th victim this year was a young Pakistani man who
took his own life in a migrant detention centre at Gradisca
d'Isonzo near Venice.
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