Topic: 2025 – Treatment of Prisoners
Country: Italy
Delegate Name: Samuel Sundeen
Country: Italy
Committee: Human Rights Council
Topic: Treatment of Prisoners
Delegate: Samuel Sundeen
School: Williamston High School
The world has many prisoners. Around 11.5 million people worldwide are in prisons. But the world faces many problems with prisoners. Overcrowding and mistreatment of prisoners are extremely common. Many countries are over their prisoner capacity. This leads to poor conditions like lack of sanitation, torture, corruption, and poor health conditions worldwide. More than one out of ten deaths in prisons are from suicide. These are preventable deaths. Homicide rates are also higher in prisons in nearly every country. Rehabilitation can only happen in prisons that have good, healthy, humane conditions. It’s also important to note how big a problem disease is in most prisons. Also, mental health among prisoners often suffers.
Italy faces many of these problems, too. Overcrowding is a huge problem in Italy, with prisons at over 130% capacity. Italy also doesn’t have enough people working in prisons, with a shortage of at least 18,000 correctional officers. Italy has seen a rise in violent incidents such as riots, self-harm, and suicides. Italian prisons are also underfunded, with a lack of access to healthcare being a big issue. This isn’t helped by recent government initiatives to increase penalties, which leads to more prisoners. Italy is a signatory to the Convention against Torture. The goal of this treaty is to prevent torture in prisons by taking allegations seriously, prosecuting the perpetrators, and providing remedies to victims. Nearly 20% of Italian prisoners suffer from a mental health condition. We must work to help those in need.
There is no single way to solve our prison problems, but there are places to start. First, Italy urges increased funding for prisons, as it has done. With these funds, we can increase prison capacity with a goal of nearly 10,000 new prisons in Italy. Italy also wants to increase rehabilitation programs for prisoners. The goal of prisons should be to make a better person than came in, not just to punish. If we increase prisons, it could solve issues and make prisons cleaner and effective. We also need to increase healthcare systems for prisoners. Lack of healthcare is a big problem and a big reason prisoners aren’t happy, and when prisoners aren’t happy, that can lead to potentially violent problems. Italy looks forward to working with fellow European and NATO countries to help solve these issues.
