Naples, 19 July (LaPresse) – A 54-year-old prisoner has taken his own life in Rebibbia prison in Rome. The news was reported by the secretary general of the Uilpa prison police union, Gennarino De Fazio.The man, a 54-year-old Roman, “worked in the prison kitchen until a few months ago. This morning,” explains De Fazio, 'he was found hanged in his single cell on the first floor of the G-12 wing of the Rebibbia prison in Rome. He is the 41st prisoner to take his own life since the beginning of the year (plus one admitted to outside work and another in a Rems), to which must be added three prison officers, making a total of 44 deaths in prison. The Italian prison system effectively imposes the death penalty and indiscriminately affects prisoners and prison officers. The former regardless of the crime they may have committed, the latter for the sole “crime” of being in the service of the state. De Fazio points out that Rebibbia 'is crammed with 1,565 inmates, compared to a capacity of 1,068, with overcrowding of more than 143%. What's more, the prison population, including the surplus, is managed by only 650 prison officers (often only on paper) compared to a requirement of at least 1,137 (according to the Department of Prison Administration). As a result, workloads are exorbitant and impossible to complete, and shifts are effectively unlimited, with restrictions on rights, including constitutional rights. Rather than resorting to palliative measures, the Minister of Justice and the entire executive should take immediate steps to reduce the prison population and increase the number of prison police officers, who are increasingly understaffed in prisons, to the point of suffering state-sanctioned exploitation with shifts lasting up to 26 hours without a break, in stark contrast to the government's narrative..