Overcrowding and high suicide rates. These are the two major problems facing prisons. For example, look at the figures given by Caritas in a country like Italy. Here they have 10,000 inmates in excess of available space and 80 people who have taken their own lives so far this year.
Italy's prison system is on the verge of surpassing the highest number of suicides in two decades. The maximum was in 2022, with 84 registered cases.
The Pope is no stranger to the drama in prisons. In many of his trips he has not failed to visit penitentiary centers, such as this one in Bolivia. Every time he visits one, the last visit being to this prison in Verona, he does not avoid the drama that is being experienced.
POPE FRANCIS
We know the situation in prisons, which are often overcrowded—in my land, as well—resulting in tensions and hardships. That is why I want to tell you that I am close to you, and I renew my appeal, especially to those who can act in this area, that we continue to work for the improvement of prison life.
But the drama of the prisons is also lived just a few meters from the Vatican, less than a kilometer away, in the Roman prison of Regina Coeli. Pope Francis also visited it. It was on Holy Thursday 2018, when the pontiff washed the feet of 12 inmates. Here there are 1,150 people, while its capacity can only accommodate 628.
It is a prison that also tops the list of suicides in Italy. Fifteen people have taken their own lives in four years, the last one on September 17.
TR: JD
