(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 23 - Around 10 inmates and guards were
taken to hospital early on Tuesday to be treated for smoke
inhalation after prisoners set fire to mattresses in their cells
during a riot at the jail on the north-eastern city of Gorizia
overnight.
None of the people taken to hospital are in a life-threatening
condition, the sources said.
The riot is only the latest in a series of recent disturbances
at Italy's prisons, amid alarm about overcrowding, a problem
that especially acute during the heatwaves the country has been
having, and the high number of inmate suicides.
Prison-rights association Antigone said in a report presented in
Rome on Tuesday that Italy's prisons "are exploding".
The report said the official overcrowding rate at Italy's
prisons of around 120% is too low because it fails to account
for the over 4,000 places that are not currently available.
It said the real overcrowding rate is over 130%, with the
nation's jails holding 14,000 more inmates than the number they
have places for.
The report said the overcrowding rate was over 150% in 56 jails
and over 190% in eight, while only 38 did not suffer
overcrowding.
Antigone said the prisons had 61,480 inmates on June 30,
compared to a official capacity of 51,234.
It said there have been 58 suicides in Italian prisons since the
start of the year, including nine so far in July. (ANSA).