Heat, overcrowding, pushes Italian prison guard union to sue

ROME – A prison guard union in Italy’s southern Puglia region will ask prosecutors to investigate widespread workplace safety abuses, with temperatures inside overcrowded prisons rising above 50 deg C, in a case the union says is a first, AFP has learnt.

The formal complaint alleging a “structural and persistent situation” accuses prison department officials of negligence in failing to fix entrenched problems of overcrowding, heat, second-hand smoke or inmates with psychiatric issues.

The union hopes the case can be copied across the country to improve Italy’s chronically dysfunctional prisons.

AFP is the first to report on the complaint, having viewed in advance the document which the SAPPE union in Puglia plans to file at the court of Taranto on July 28.

SAPPE’s lawyer, Fabrizio Lofoco, called it “trailblazing,” saying he believed it was the first time such a collective action was being taken in the name of Italy’s “polizia penitenziaria” or prison police.

In Italy, the complaint, known as an “esposto”, seeks to inform judicial authorities of alleged violations of the law, and open a fact-finding investigation. It does not seek damages.

The union filed a related complaint on June 22 at the court of auditors in Bari, alleging “grossly inefficient management” that has wasted public funds by failing to tackle overcrowding.

Citing “prolonged inertia in the face of a pathological phenomenon entrenched for decades”, that complaint asks the court to calculate how much compensation Italy has paid to prisoners for violating minimum detention space standards of 3 sq m (32 sq ft) per person, as set by the European Court of Human Rights.

The SAPPE union estimates it at about €15 million (S$22 million) annually.

‘Everyone knows’

The complaint to be filed alleges prison administrators are well aware of conditions inside Puglia’s prisons – Italy’s most overcrowded – and asks prosecutors to assess criminal liability, if it is found that authorities failed to take preventive measures that could have reduced risk.

“It’s not that people don’t know – people on the right, the left, the centre, everyone knows about this disgrace, but nobody has the courage to tackle it,” Lofoco said of Italy’s prison problems.

The prison department warned regional supervisors in March of coming summer heat, urging them to “take any suitable and appropriate measure”, including providing shade, water supplies, refrigerators in wings and avoiding outside breaks during the hottest times of day.

Implementation has been spotty, as watchdog inspections across the country have shown.

The majority of Italy’s prisons are in sore need of upgrades, including those built in the 1970s and 80s from durable concrete – to reduce the risk of escape.

In hot weather, they trap heat, pushing up temperatures another 10 deg C inside cells, prison observers say.

The head of SAPPE in Puglia, Federico Pilagatti, called it “torture”, with cells “like ovens”, even after sundown.

“Already the inmates are crammed in like sardines, and then we have to add the dilapidated buildings,” he said, adding that fans – if inmates are lucky to have them – do not always work due to inadequate electrical capacity.

The complaint alleges that parts of the Taranto prison have experienced temperatures at or above 50 deg C since June.

Straining the infrastructure is overcapacity, with 852 prisoners for 430 places, according to prison department data from July 24.

“The water runs out, everything runs out because there are far more people than the infrastructure was built for,” Pilagatti said.

AFP’s request to visit the prison in Taranto was denied but it is not an isolated case.

To the north, Puglia’s Foggia prison holds 2.19 times the number of prisoners it can accommodate, one of eight prisons exceeding 200 per cent overcrowding, according to prisoner advocacy group Antigone.

Out of Italy’s 189 prisons, 73 experienced 150 per cent overcrowding as of April 30.

Lawyer Lofoco told AFP the heat exacerbates longstanding problems inside prisons.

“It’s as if a yellow highlighter had suddenly been run over all issues that torment not only those who are in prison – the inmates, who are human beings too – but also the prison guards.”

Riots on their way

The complaint alleges that health and safety standards are flouted inside crowded prisons, with guards systemically forced to work overtime, sometimes in 12-hour shifts due to staff shortages, in a high-stress environment exacerbated by the heat.

Guards warn conditions are at a breaking point.

“You’ll see before long there will be prison riots, because the heat increases stress and then the inmates lose their grip and protest, commit suicide, etc,” said Pilagatti.

According to Antigone, 82 inmates took their own lives in 2025. For guards, the suicide rate is three times the national average, according to prison watchdogs.

On a recent scorching day in Rome, prisoner rights associations went inside the crumbling Regina Coeli, a 17th-century convent converted into a jail.

“They are living a terrible life, one you can’t even imagine unless you go in there,” Senator Ilaria Cucchi told AFP of those inside.

“Packed” inside their cells for 23 hours a day, inmates’ one-hour break outside comes during the hottest time of the day.

At the visitor’s entrance, a sweating guard emerged as relatives waited to drop off care packages to inmates.

Silvia Presti said her son Ivan could not afford a fan inside his cell, which was not equipped with a refrigerator.

“They’re dying from the heat,” the 67-year-old Roman told AFP.

“I bring him something to eat but everything goes bad.” AFP