Protest against conditions

One hundred prisoners rioted in Rome prison

A riot broke out in Rome's "Regina Coeli" prison on Friday. Around one hundred inmates rioted in the prison, which is located in the Trastevere district of Rome. There was a power cut and some camping stoves used by the inmates for cooking were set on fire.

The inmates, who had been protesting for days against the difficult living conditions in the prison, threw objects in their cells, destroyed the video surveillance equipment and attacked the prison staff. The riot was only quelled after a few hours, said Gennarino De Fazio, spokesman for the Uilpa prison police. He lamented the "hellish conditions" in the overcrowded prison.

Brutal protests in prisons almost daily
In Italy, riots in prisons are on the increase. Violent protests have broken out almost daily in the country's overcrowded prisons in recent weeks. The inmates are protesting against overcrowding and the poor conditions due to the high summer temperatures.

New law aims to improve the situation
Italy's Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, recently pushed through a law in parliament to relieve the pressure on Italian prisons. This contains some remarkable innovations, starting with the possibility of serving the sentence in an environment other than prison, e.g. in shared accommodation for drug addicts. Each case is assessed by a court.

There are almost 60,000 prisoners in Italian prisons. This means that the prisons are overcrowded by around 8,000 prison places