Ammon News - Italy's government has pledged to expand prison capacity by up 15,000 places and facilitate the transfer of inmates with addiction problems to treatment centres to tackle a long-standing overcrowding crisis.

The plight of prisoners has attracted more attention in Italy following a record number of suicides last year and complaints about soaring summer temperatures in detention facilities that are not air-conditioned.

As of July 15, the country had 62,986 inmates, and an effective capacity in prisons of 47,289, justice ministry data showed. This gives Italy an occupancy rate of around 133%, one of the worst in Europe.

"We believe that a just state should adjust the capacity of prisons to the number of people that need to serve their sentences," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Her government presented a 758-million-euro ($890 million) plan to expand prison capacity by almost 10,000 by 2027, and a separate initiative for which it gave no budget to create an additional 5,000 places within five years.

It also adopted a draft law - which will need parliamentary approval - to allow a sizeable portion of inmates with alcohol or drug addictions to leave prison and serve their sentences in rehab centres. Reuters