Brussels, 08/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 8 January, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Italy in several cases involving applications from detainees about their conditions of detention. It has called on Rome to resolve its structural problem of prison overcrowding as quickly as possible.
In the Chamber judgement in the case of Torreggiani and Others v. Italy (application No 43517/09), the Court ruled in favour of the seven applicants serving sentences at the prisons of Busto Arsizio and Piacenza, who felt that their conditions of detention were tantamount to inhumane and degrading treatment.
Each of the complainants stated they were placed in cells of 9 square metres in size with two other detainees, while the norm recommended by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (a Council of Europe body) is 4 square metres of personal space. These cramped conditions were made worse in the Piacenza prison, the ECHR states, by other treatment such as the lack of hot water over long periods, and insufficient lighting or ventilation.
Italy was sentenced to pay the applicants a total of €99,600, but this goes beyond just these specific cases.
The Court in Strasbourg has chosen to apply a so-called “pilot judgement” procedure in this case in order to provide a general and rapid response to the large number of similar cases that could be submitted. Noting the structural and systematic nature of prison overcrowding in Italy, it calls on the authorities to take comprehensive measures to put a halt to any rights violations arising from overcrowding.
The ECHR requests that, within one year, the authorities should put in place a remedy or combination of remedies providing redress in respect of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, due to prison overcrowding. For those who have suffered from such breaches of human rights, it is a matter of providing the possibility of requesting and obtaining reparation.
Pending such measures, the ECHR's scrutiny of the requests solely related to prison overcrowding in Italy will be adjourned. The one-year time limit fixed by the Court will begin as soon as the ruling becomes final. This will be the case in three months' time if no party has, by then, requested that the matter be referred to the Court's Grand Chamber. Such a request for referral must be accepted by a college of judges so that the matter is finally submitted to the ECHR supreme body, whose rulings are final.
Speaking in Rome, the Italian minister for justice, Paola Severino, said she was mortified by the Court's ruling but that it did not come as a surprise to her. She said she would continue to fight to ensure that the conditions of detention of prisoners in Italian gaols are worthy of a civilised country. Severino is the author of a draft law on overcoming prison overcrowding which gives preference to alternative sanctions.
According to a report by Antigone, an association for the defence of prisoners' rights, the rate of prison overcrowding in Italy is 142.5%, i.e. there are 142 prisoners for every 100 places available. (LC/transl.jl)