Article 41-bis prison regime

In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act (also known as Italy's "hard prison regime") is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations. Currently it is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia involvement; drug-trafficking; homicide; aggravated robbery and extortion; kidnapping; importation, buying, possession or cession of huge amounts of drugs; and crimes committed for terrorism or for subversion of 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 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:

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 July 26, 1975) as an emergency measure to deal with prison unrest and revolts during the years of lead (Italian: anni di piombo), characterized by widespread social conflicts and terrorism acts carried out by extra-parliamentary movements. On 8 June 1992, after the killing of judge Giovanni Falcone by the Mafia, it was modified (confirmed in Law no. 356 of 7 August 1992) and the new article stipulated that restrictive measures could be implemented when there was "serious concern over the maintenance of order and security." The aim was to prevent association, and therefore the exchange of messages, between Mafia prisoners and to break the chain of command between Mafia bosses and their subordinates.

In the days following the killing of Falcone’s colleague Paolo Borsellino, 400 imprisoned Mafia bosses were transferred by helicopter and military transport aircraft from Palermo’s Ucciardone prison to top security prisons on the mainland at Ascoli Piceno and Cuneo, and to the island prisons of Pianosa and Asinara, where the severity of the 41-bis regime was accentuated by geographical remoteness.

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