Long press release from the President of the City Council of Reggio Calabria Vincenzo Marra on the topic of suicides in prison. “When the lawyer Pasquale Foti, President of the Criminal Chamber Of Reggio Calabria, he asked me if I could also say something about such a delicate topic as that of suicides in prisonfor a moment, I admit, I have hesitated. Not because I had nothing to say about it, on the contrary. But because I believe that it is such a complex topic that it cannot be condensed into a few words. However, I wondered what could be the contribution of a public administrator who ignores the usual stereotypes and concretely immerses himself in the prison reality to try to provide a key that is not only for interpretation, but also for intervention”the intervention begins.
The numbers and the causes
“So – Marra continues – I can only start from objective data that were “thrust” in my face the moment I went to study them: in 2024 alone, as of June 19, there were 44 suicides in prison. One every three days. Every three days, one person who finds himself in detention decides to take his own life. But if this may appear to be the most problematic fact, I assure you that I found another one that really shocked me: in 2023 the suicide rate of female prisoners is significantly higher, in percentage terms, than that of men”.
“I therefore went in search of the possible causes of a phenomenon that shows no signs of abating. I read about marginalization, previous psychiatric pathologies, drug addiction, homeless people. And a detail: the majority of suicides involve prisoners of foreign nationality. So, my mind immediately went to the hypothesis according to which those who decide to take their own life are probably tired of a prison life that, in his perspective, seems very long. Infinite. Here too I was contradicted by the facts: many of the people who committed suicide were awaiting trial. Do you understand? Still awaiting trial, therefore innocent until proven guilty. Others ended it after very short periods of detention, a few weeks or a few months. Others only a handful of days”.
“But there is one fact – and here I dwell – that left me with a sense of failure: there are many, too many suicides of those who are about to leave prison either for a short remaining sentence or for a planned alternative measure. These are people who had to re-enter society and do so after a period that should have represented an opportunity for them. And instead, by committing suicide a few miles from the finish line, they made us understand that they did not even feel the seed of hope within them”.
“The Gift of Hope”
“I will not delve into issues such as overcrowding, the construction of new facilities or the improvement of existing ones. I will leave that to the technicians and politicians of national rank. I ask myself, rather, what local politics, a municipal or regional administration can do to mitigate, as much as possible, a trend like this that shows no signs of abating. Back to hope: here, I believe that we must be able to provide those who enter a cell with the gift of hope. Which cannot and must not be expressed only in the idea of an early exit as possible, but which must take the form of being able to guarantee those who end up in cells all the moral and material assistance possible”continues Marra.
“Let us not forget that a large part of those crowding prisons are people awaiting trial.. Therefore presumed innocent people who, for serious facts, are in a state of pre-trial detention in prison. Here we must already intervene with paths that can help those people to bear the burden of waiting for the trial which, we know, can sometimes be exhausting, despite the efforts made by the judiciary. But in their case a local administration can, for example, prepare a series of paths and projects that allow to alleviate that sense of disorientation experienced by the person who crosses the door of prison for the first time. Just as it can be for those who are ending up there not for the first time. Imprisonment, it should not be forgotten, represents a failure first and foremost for those who suffer it. No one chooses to be imprisoned, but accepts the risk. Sometimes because they feel – wrongly – that they have no other opportunities. This is what a local administration can do: concretely help those who want it to be able to have an alternative. An opportunity. As well as those who are serving definitive sentences”.
“We can no longer allow the issue of “re-education” of the convicted to be delegated only to national politics and penitentiary institutions. I believe that a widespread policy of re-education is needed, involving the territories and making citizens feel like protagonists”.
“We certainly can and must strive to improve prison conditions. However, this requires a long time frame that is difficult to reconcile with the need for speed that an emergency like that of suicides requires. So, while we wait for national institutions to tackle the issue head on, at a local level we cannot remain still, as we are already doing in Reggio Calabria. We need to increase and improve these paths. If a widespread and delocalized policy of reception, opportunities, alternatives, begins to spread, the ability to listen and assist prisoners will also improve. Sometimes it takes very little to save a life and give a second chance. I am available and ready to provide my concrete contribution, because I am convinced that, with actions like those just mentioned, the number of suicides in prison could begin to decrease in the short term”, concludes the President of the City Council.
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