Sicily prisons face overcrowding crisis amid violence and staff strain

Regional councilor Fernando Errico warned that the prisons in the Sannio area are in a humanitarian emergency, citing extreme overcrowding, summer heat, mental‑health distress, self‑harm and suicides. He urged the adoption of a special early‑release scheme for inmates serving less than a year who actively engage in rehabilitation, and called for additional resources for surveillance magistrates, educators, psychologists, cultural mediators and prison police.

Union secretary Gioacchino Veneziano of UIL‑PA reported a recent violent incident at the Piazza Lanza prison in Catania that left three prison police officers hospitalized after an inmate attack. He described such assaults as routine across Sicilian prisons, attributing them to chronic overcrowding, staff shortages and a high number of detainees with psychiatric illnesses, and warned that recent legislative changes have reduced the operational margin of prison police.