Italian criminal lawyers on Saturday
slammed a reform currently being considered by the government
under which alternative measures to detention, including house
arrest or probation, would be evaluated for detainees who have
not been convicted for serious offenses and have to serve
residual sentences of less than a year.
"The government put itself in a blind alley which it will have a
hard time exiting", said the president of the Union of Italian
criminal chambers, Francesco Petrelli.
"The hypothesis of house arrest for detainees who need to finish
serving short terms (about 8,000 inmates) implies a complex
jurisdictional evaluation and to overcome objective obstacles.
"According to government experts, it could currently provide no
more than 200 house detentions - a trifling number compared to
the urgent need for deflationary measures", added Petrelli.
"The government's prison-centric policies are a grave step
backwards, including for the security of citizens and they are
inevitably destined to fail", Petrelli added, stressing the
position of criminal lawyers who have "always supported policies
and laws favouring the implementation of alternative measures to
prison".
He added that the union he represents has not seen the draft
text on which the government is working.
However, it is "surprised that, after issuing and converting a
prisons decree that should have resolved the issue", the
government "realized that new urgent interventions are
necessary".
The measure, which was discussed on August 7 at a meeting
between Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, and the National
guarantor for persons deprived of liberty, is being considered
by the justice ministry.
The government has mooted more alternatives to jail time and
shorter sentences as a way to resolve an overcrowding crisis
that has helped spur a record wave of suicides among inmates and
guards.
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