Country

Italy

Detention issue

Solitary confinement

FRA research findings

View details

Legal instruments & key provisions

Legal instrument Key provision
Law No. 354/1975 (Legge 26 luglio 1975, n. 354, Norme sull’ordinamento penitenziario e sulla esecuzione delle misure privative e limitative della libertà)Solitary confinement is allowed for sanitary reasons or in case the prisoner is excluded from community activities in the framework of a disciplinary measure. Isolation represents the most severe sanction: the detainee is excluded from social activities for 15 days.

NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS

Year Recommendation Report
2018The NPM expressed its concern that in some cases prisoners in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons might be detained in so-called ‘empty cells’ (celle lisce), i.e. cells with no furniture except for the bed (and in some cases a table with a chair).This prison regime infringes upon the principle of human dignity, and has already been stigmatised by both ECtHR and Italian courts. Another critical issue reported by the NPM concerns the possibility that, on the one hand, the same prisoner is condemned to more than one solitary confinement period and, on the other hand, those prisoners condemned to such detention measure in accordance with Article 72 of the Italian Criminal Code are excluded from all community activities, whereas this legislative provision does not set out the complete deprivation of social contacts. Report details
http://www.garantenazionaleprivatiliberta.it/gnpl/resources/cms/documents/80b4fe30143fcbb952b2182b26545204.pdf