Italy Overcrowding and violence in a prison near the border near Como
The atmosphere in Bassone prison near Como, less than ten kilometers from the Swiss border, is explosive. Last week there was a riot lasting several hours. Italian politicians are calling it a "powder keg" and demanding swift action.
24.11.2025, 16:29
SDA
In a video interview published on Facebook, Italy's Deputy Interior Minister Nicola Molteni (Lega) said that the situation in Como prison was not "normal". In it, he also confirmed corresponding statements in a report by the Ticino daily newspaper "Corriere del Ticino". The prison is a "powder keg", Molteni stated.
According to the article, there are twice as many inmates in the so-called Bassone prison as the maximum capacity. Several Italian media reported on a riot ten days ago, which was only quelled after several hours. In the aftermath of the riot, a 24-year-old prisoner took his own life.
According to prison guards, violence is the order of the day, writes the "Corriere del Ticino", and the number of injured officers can hardly be counted. Luigino Nessi (Sinistra Italiana), a member of the Como municipal council, called the incidents a "defeat for our prison system and for all of us".
"Inmates are robbed of their dignity"
Bassone is actually a remand prison, the article continues, but due to the general overcrowding of prisons in Lombardy and Italy, it is also used for people who have already received a final conviction or are serving longer sentences.
Last week - after the suicide of the prisoner in question - the board of the Chamber of Defence Lawyers of Como and Lecco visited the prison together with the organization "Nessuno tocchi Caino" and numerous judges.
"Record overcrowding of 190 percent. One bed on the floor for every third prisoner, piled on top of each other, in catastrophic hygienic conditions," reads the report published by several Italian media outlets. The law provides for someone who makes mistakes to be deprived of their freedom - but not of their dignity, the defense lawyers and judges concluded.
