National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty (GNPL): Analytical Report “Respect for the Dignity of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty”

On 31 July 2026, Italian prisons held over 64,000 adults. This is the picture that emerges from the analytical report “Respect for the Dignity of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty,” published by the Adult Prison Observatory of the National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty (GNPL), based on data from the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP). The document updates earlier findings and offers useful elements for assessing Italy’s compliance with its international obligations on detention.

The most significant finding concerns overcrowding. Measured against the places actually available, according to the standards of the European Court of Human Rights, the national rate stands at 139.79%, slightly higher than in April. According to the report, seven institutions are reported to have an overcrowding rate above 200%, while eleven institutions hold more than one thousand people. This situation draws attention to the Torreggiani v. Italy judgment (2013), in which Strasbourg recognised the structural nature of the problem under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The report also describes a “funnel” system: between July 2025 and July 2026, admissions from liberty exceeded releases by about 12,500. According to the Guarantor, this imbalance progressively saturates available space and undermines rehabilitative programmes, with consequences for the rehabilitative aim of punishment enshrined in Article 27 of the Italian Constitution. As for the internal organisation of the prison system, about 60% of detainees are held in ordinary or high-security sections, or under the 41-bis regime, while only around 40% are assigned to attenuated-custody or intensified-treatment sections.

According to the estimates, more than half of convicted persons have less than three years of their sentence left to serve, and almost a third of the detained population could be eligible for alternative measures. Over the past year, 19,354 people left prison through such measures, with marked differences between regions. The report describes these measures as a pillar of the penal enforcement system and a concrete means of reducing prison numbers.

Finally, some data concern groups in a position of particular vulnerability:

• Over one fifth of detainees have not yet received a final conviction, a circumstance that raises concerns with regard to the presumption of innocence.
• Foreign nationals, around 31% of the total, are more strongly represented among those awaiting a first judgment and receive about a quarter of the alternative measures granted; the Guarantor calls for a reflection on access to these measures and on the need to strengthen cultural mediation programmes.
• There are 29 mothers living in prison with 34 children, an increase since April: the report observes that, in this situation, security requirements intersect with the fundamental rights of minors.
• There are 1,442 people aged seventy or over, who require adequate healthcare and a more systematic assessment of home detention and humanitarian measures.

The Guarantor calls for structural interventions shared among the competent institutions, in particular faster release pathways and stronger alternative measures, and cautions that the data offer a static snapshot, to be complemented by multi-year series. The question remains how to reconcile constitutional and Convention principles with the material conditions of detention.