Inmate guarantors urge action on prison suicides

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 17 - Italy's inmates guarantors on Wednesday called for urgent action to stem a tide of prison suicides that has seen 31prisoners take their own lives this year alone, and 1,754 over the last 32 years.
    "On 18 March, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, receiving the prison police, said: 'Urgent action is needed on suicides in prison'," said the guarantors.
    "We no longer have the time to enumerate the cases of suicide before we are forced to update the chilling list.
    "An unbearable trickle, like the feeling of inadequate prevention activities.
    "It is more than ever our duty to analyse the phenomenon of overcrowding, reiterating, once again, the urgent need for action".
    According to the latest figures, there are some 61,000 prisoners in Italian jails, when the official capacity .is just 48,000.
    Rome guarantor Valentina Calderone said outside Regina Coeli Prison Wednesday that "we are starting tomorrow a campaign of awareness-raising that will go on until we get answers".
    Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said earlier this week that sport in jails can be one way of bringing down the prison suicide rate. (ANSA).