The crowding rate of the Ferrara prison in July 2023 was 145.5%, hosting 355 compared to a capacity of 244. These are numbers provided by the annual Antigone report which analyzes the situation of the Emilia-Romagna prisons. The foreigners present in the prison are 134, equal to 37.7% of the total while the permanent ones are 326, 91.8% of the total. The numbers refer to the time of the association’s visit on 10 July last year.
The overall table shows a growth trend with the number of prisoners at the end of February 2024 being quantifiable at 405. The crowding rate of the Estense prison is higher than the average of the region which is calculated at 120% and also the national one (117.5%). “This rate is affected by criteria for defining the regulatory capacity of individual institutions that are not always homogeneous: for example, in the case of the institutions of Rimini and Ravenna it is calibrated on a never-practiced hypothesis of single-cell detention (one person per cell). Here it is important to observe how the most alarming indicators of overcrowding concern – with reference to the official data of 31 December 2023 – essentially three prison facilities: Bologna (163.5%), Ferrara (156.5%) and Modena (137%). The imbalance is therefore completely evident, with institutions that are on par with the expected capacity or even below this threshold (Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Castelfranco Emilia)”.
In Emilia Romagna, in a comparative key, “the margin of distance from the regions with the most congested penal institutions is significant: Puglia 152%, Veneto 133.5%, Lombardy 132%”.
“The number of people imprisoned with a definitive sentence is constantly growing and now dramatically in the majority – notes Antigone. The share of foreign prisoners is decreasing in the medium term. There are 26 nationalities represented, with the following prevalent groups: Moroccans, Albanians, Tunisians, Romanians. The overall number of semi-free men and people under art.21 is slightly increasing”.
The overcrowding of prisoners corresponds to an understaffed Penitentiary Police force with 170 officers instead of the 212 expected. “The penitentiary police command – writes Antigone in the report – specifies that the understaffing of the body is concentrated on the figure of the assistant officers (129 out of 147), with considerable consequences in terms of management and work overload of those present”.
In the report, the Antigone association points out that “the institute is in more than fair conditions” while “particular care is dedicated to cleaning the rooms”. Instead “the differentiation of the circuits (medium security, AS2, justice collaborators, relatives of justice collaborators, ‘protected’) makes the management of the activities complex due to the requests for separation and the significant understaffing of the police”.
They then note a “failure to increase the resources to be dedicated to wages, which compresses the possibility of regularly employing prisoners, who are increasingly permanent in the face of a confirmed relaunch of treatment activities (school, training, sports practice)”.
“Overcrowding – they continue – persists, with a slight increase compared to July 2022 (355 against 332, with regulatory capacity stuck at 244). In particular, the sections intended for common detention – equipped with rather cramped overnight rooms and without showers – appear rather congested”.
In Antigone the supervisory judiciary is then “described as very attentive and present” with a related increase in the number of subjects in art. 21 (12) and semi-free (6)”. The healthcare staff, on the other hand, “guarantees the coverage of shifts, albeit with difficulty, with a positive impact of telemedicine” while the number of hours in the crucial dental sector is “lacking”.
To highlight the “very high consumption of psychotropic drugs despite a high level of internal attention on dosages and methods of administration”. 80% of the administrations “are correlated to the previous consumption characteristics of the people who enter from freedom and those who are transferred from other institutions with very high prescriptions”.
However, “critical events in the medium term, with particular reference to cases of self-harm”, appear to be decreasing.
