"Widespread overcrowding in Sardinian prisons and concerns about inmates' health."

A "widespread overcrowding" which is no longer limited to Cagliari Uta (130%) and Sassari-Bancali (125%) but also to other penitentiary institutions.

"In fact, the number of prisons with an occupancy rate above 100% has tripled: in 2025, Uta and Bancali were joined by the Lanusei prison (118%) and the prisons of Oristano (101%), Tempio Pausania (104%), and Alghero (104%), with the latter institution almost doubling its occupancy. But overcrowding has not spared even the three penal colonies: the prisons of Is Arenas (from 49% to 79%), Isili (from 59% to 99%), and Mamone (from 41% to 79%)." These are some of the data that emerge from the annual report on Sardinian prisons, presented to the Regional Council by the Regional Guarantor for Persons Deprived of Personal Liberty, Irene Testa.
"The most serious data to emerge," Testa writes, "concerns the health of inmates. At Uta, 92% of the 729 inmates are undergoing ongoing therapy. Of these, 50 suffer from psychiatric illnesses (34.29% of inmates), 354 are undergoing ongoing psychiatric therapy (48.56% of inmates) , and 8.64% are on methadone therapy."

Testa, in his report, also emphasizes the high number of law enforcement cells and holding rooms that are "unusable." For example, "with specific reference to the Carabinieri, in Sassari only 8 of 101 rooms are usable; in Cagliari 14 of 115; in Oristano none of the 26 rooms are currently usable. In Nuoro, 10 of 82 rooms are usable."

Finally, the status of compulsory medical treatments. "Based on the data and information provided," the report states, "ASL No. 8 in Cagliari is the one performing the highest number of treatments. In 2025, the Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment Service (SPDC) performed 112 compulsory hospitalizations, representing 15.5% of the total number of ordinary hospitalizations performed in the Cagliari SPDC departments . In ASL No. 7 Sulcis, the SPDC of the Sirai hospital in Carbonia recorded 57 compulsory hospitalizations, equal to 11% of the total hospitalizations at the same facility in 2025."

Again, «ASL n. 1 Sassari recorded 36 TSOs out of a total of 488 hospitalisations (approximately 7.4%). In the same ASL, the SSD Prison Psychiatry carried out 4 TSOs: one in the Alghero Prison (with subsequent hospitalisation) and three in the Sassari-Bancali Prison (defined as extra-hospital TSOs). In ASL 3 of Nuoro, the department recorded a total of 22 treatments, most of which were managed by the CSM of Nuoro (18). In Medio Campidano, the medical directors of the CSM carried out 9 hospitalisations under the TSO regime. However, it is reported that the CSM does not have data relating to the TSOs carried out by other services that intervene during the centre's closing hours. Finally, the ASL 5 of Oristano communicated that it carried out 43 hospitalizations under the TSO regime during 2025, representing 11.3% of the hospitalizations carried out in the same period.

"Regional monitoring," Testa concludes, "is characterized by information gaps , due to the failure of some local health authorities to transmit data, which prevents a homogeneous and complete statistical evaluation at the regional level."

(Unioneonline/lf)