Rome [Italy], March 14: Prisoners in the northern Italian city of Parma are on hunger strike over poor sanitation and overcrowding, the latest in a spate of protests in the country's jails where cases of suicide and self-harm are at an all-time high.
Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government has responded by threatening to make even peaceful protesting a criminal offence - a draconian crackdown that experts say has no parallel in any other Western democracy.
The move is among a raft of law-and-order initiatives by Meloni, establishing new crimes and stiffening penalties for existing ones ahead of European parliament elections in June.
If a little-noticed clause in a government security bill becomes law, inmates like those in Parma who beat on their cell bars or refuse to work or eat could see their jail time doubled, a prospect that troubles both legal experts and prison workers.
They say the real problem faced by Italy's prisons is that they are overcrowded and understaffed, making it difficult for inmates to access health, psychiatric and educational services.
As a result, psychological problems are rife, morale is low and protests are frequent, either for personal reasons or over degrading conditions.
"When prisoners use passive resistance to protest we have ways to deal with it, by listening first and if necessary by restraining them," said Donato Capece, who was a prison guard for almost 50 years and now heads the sector's union Sappe.
"I have doubts about classifying these cases as crimes," he added.
Angela Della Bella, a criminal law professor at Milan University, said adding new crimes and longer sentences to the penal code will mean more congested courts and more prison overcrowding, compounding an already critical situation.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation
