Italy has just months to avert a clash with the EU over prison overcrowding

Brussels – Prison overcrowding remains a serious problem for Italy, which has just a few months left to demonstrate that it has taken action to improve the situation and avoid any infringement proceedings. While it is true that “detention issues fall primarily within the responsibility of the Member States,” as the Commissioner for Justice, Michael McGrath, points out, continuing to have overcrowded prisons risks leading the country to breach Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, which requires all EU Member States to “human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.”

 It was MEP Pina Picierno who raised the issue in a parliamentary question (which appears to come from the Socialist group, which Picierno herself left to join the RE liberals). The Vice-President of the European Parliament points out that “overcrowded to the point of 140 per cent of statutory capacity, Italian prisons are in dire straits,” and calls on the European Commission to carry out the necessary investigations and, if necessary, to take action to urge the government and the relevant authorities to change course.

For Italy, a call for EU-level compliance may prove necessary, McGrath suggests. The European Commission’s recommendation on the procedural rights of suspects and defendants placed in pre‑trial detention and on the material conditions of detention remains “pending” in all Member States. Here, among other things, there is a call to use pre-trial detention as a last resort and to explore alternatives to detention. Indeed, the Commissioner for Justice emphasises, “By the end of 2026, the Commission will publish a comprehensive report assessing the national measures taken by the Member States to implement the Recommendation. With this analysis, the Commission will be able to evaluate how each Member State is performing and be better positioned to address potential issues further.”

Italy, like all the others, will therefore be subject to assessment. It is, like everyone else, under close scrutiny, although to a greater extent than others, given that its situation is among the worst: Italy ranks fifth for prison overcrowding, and that is why any measures taken at the national level will be scrutinised more closely. The Meloni government has been warned.