Article 41-bis prison regime

In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations and impose practically a complete isolation upon a prisoner. Currently it is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia-type association under 416-bis (Associazione di tipo mafioso), drug trafficking, homicide, aggravated robbery and extortion, kidnapping, terrorism, and attempting to subvert the constitutional system. It is suspended only when a prisoner co-operates with the authorities, when a court annuls it, or when a prisoner dies. The Surveillance Court of Rome is the court competent on nationwide level on appeals against the 41-bis decree. The European Court of Human Rights found in 2007 that the regime breached two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2002, 300 Mafia prisoners declared a hunger strike and in 2022 Alfredo Cospito began a hunger strike which generated mainstream media attention on 41-bis. The system was essentially intended to cut inmates off completely from their original milieu and to separate them from their former criminal associates. Measures normally include bans on: the use of the telephone; all association or correspondence with other prisoners; meetings with third parties; receiving or sending sums of money over a set amount; receiving parcels (other than those containing linen) from the outside; organising cultural, recreational or sporting activities; voting or standing in elections for prisoner representatives; and taking part in arts-and-crafts activities, etc., as well as restrictions on visits from members of the family (once per month and visitors are only allowed to communicate by intercom through thick glass). Article 41-bis was introduced in 1975 (Prison Administration Act, Law no. 354 of 26 July 1975) as an emergency measure to deal with prison unrest and revolts during the years of lead (anni di piombo), characterized by widespread social conflicts and terrorism acts carried out by extra-parliamentary movements.