Italy considers ‘love rooms’ in prisons after top court’s ruling
Prisoners have a right to conjugal visits that cannot be refused on the basis of inadequate facilities, Italy’s top court has ruled.
The Supreme Court of Cassation last month ruled in favour of an anonymous 34-year-old prisoner who was denied private time with his wife on the basis that the structure of the prison made it impossible.
The “freedom to enjoy emotional relationships constitutes a constitutionally protected right”, the judges ruled, which can only be denied for “reasons of security or maintenance of order and discipline, or due to the prisoner’s social dangerousness or for judicial reasons for the accused”.
Rita Bernardini, head of the Italian wing of campaign group Hands Off Cain, told Il Messaggero that prisons should respond to the ruling by establishing a dedicated space for conjugal visits to take place outside of a prisoner’s cell.
These proposed spaces have been dubbed stanze dell’amore – “love rooms” – by the Italian press.
“But it’s not just about intimacy with the partner,” Ms Bernardini said. “Think about how important it would be for a detained parent to meet their child in a welcoming environment, so as not to make them experience the trauma of prison.”
Irma Conti, the Italian prisoners’ watchdog, suggested that creating new spaces inside prisons, particularly those with a large population, would prove impractical. It would be more logical to grant permission, where the needs connected to the sentence allow it, for prisoners and their loved ones to meet outside the prison,” she said.
“The competent ministries are evaluating what the best solution is. My hope is that, whatever it is, it will be applied uniformly throughout the national territory.”