Italy’s justice minister visits prison where 2 inmates died

Italy’s justice minister visited a Turin prison on Saturday where two women died within hours of each other, as prisoner advocates warned of a spate of summertime suicides in Italy’s overcrowded detention facilities.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told reporters his visit wasn’t an inspection or investigation into the Lorusso and Cutugno prison, but rather a show of solidarity with the facility following the deaths Friday. He called for alternative forms of detention and the conversion of military barracks for prison use to help relieve overcrowding.
According to news reports and the Antigone Association, which advocates for better prison conditions, an Italian woman killed herself in her cell at the prison, while a Nigerian woman died within hours in the facility’s mental health ward after having refused food and drink since she arrived on July 22.