Today, Italian justice stops. Or at least, it is considerably slowed down: for the day of March 20, in fact, the Council of the Union of Italian Criminal Chambers (UCPI) proclaimed the abstention from criminal hearings and from any judicial activity in the sector. The reasons for the arrest are linked to the conditions of detention in our country. As the March 2 resolution underlines, “the phenomenon of suicides occurring in prison during the first 58 days of 2024 is constantly increasing: approximately one every two days”. Added to this is the overcrowding of establishments, which adds to the “pathological shortage of prison guards, doctors and psychiatrists and social workers”, exacerbating, according to criminal lawyers, “the already difficult living conditions of prisoners”. Finally, abstention wants to send a message against “the succession of episodes of violence against detainees”.
The exception of Ischia
The corridors of Italian courts will therefore be half deserted today. Except in Ischia: on the island it will be possible to be convicted like any other day. And it is not because the constituency is losing interest in the cause, but because the abstention on the spot took place two days ago, on March 18. For the rest, many lawyers will be in the street rather than in the courtroom: in Rome there will in fact be a demonstration “with all the associations sensitive to this emergency”.
Requests
The requests are precise and political: “raise public opinion and above all convince the Government, Parliament and politics as a whole of the need to adopt generalized acts of clemency”. In other words: pardon or amnesty, to begin with. But the criminal lawyers also call for “urgent legislation on the granting of special early releases, the introduction of the 'limited number' system or any other instrument likely to limit the recurrence of the phenomenon of overpopulation in the future”. In the meantime, provide “special extra-private measures for prisoners with short expiation”. They also ask “to carry out appropriate decriminalization, as well as to reduce the use of individual intramural precautionary measures, by bringing them back to the liberal principles of the least possible sacrifice and the presumption of innocence”.
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