PRISONERS RAISE HAVOC WHILE POPE ASKS FOR CLEMENCY

In an effort to urge Parliament to act, prisoners have rioted for the past weeks, banging pots, setting fires, shouting and going on hunger strikes.

While the Pope explicitly asks governments throughout the world to "invoke a sign of clemency in favour of prisoners" and review their attitude to criminal justice, Italian politicians are still debating over prison measures.

Both center left and the opposition are eager to satisfy the Pope's request, but seriously disagree over how broad the prison measure should be.

Ppi leader, Castagnetti, said that the Vatican's request should not "fall prey to petty political disagreements".

All parties agree that something must be done to solve the chronic overcrowding of Italian prisoners which now house 53,000 inmates instead of the schedules 41,000.

Most parties of the majority coalition are in favour of a general pardon that would provide for a sentence reduction for most crimes that would temporarily reduce the problem of overcrowding, but the opposition is strongly against it.

Following a meeting with Justice Minister, Piero Fassino, center-right leader Berlusconi said that "it has already been proven in the past that a pardon does not solve anything".

The opposition is against a solution that would bring thousands of convicted criminals back to the streets, potentially raising the crime rate.

Most opposition members are in favour of an amnesty to be applied only to certain crimes.

Luigi Manconi, Green senator, called for both majority and opposition to have a "serious meeting on both amnesty and pardons' and asked the parties to "look beyond reciprocal differences".

There is agreement, however, on the fact that the present judicial system is in need of a radical change and an amnesty could alleviate the existing pressure on both prison and courts where there are 5.9 million cases pending, each one taking an average of 601 days to resolve.