Milan, March 18 (LaPresse) – Prisoners under the 41-bis regime must be allowed to spend at least 4 hours outdoors per day, or a maximum of two hours if the prison administration decides otherwise. This was established by the Constitutional Court in ruling number 30, filed today, which declared the constitutional illegitimacy of Article 41-bis, paragraph 2-quater letter f, "limited to the phrase 'no more than two hours per day, provided the minimum limit stated in the first paragraph of Article 10 remains unchanged.'"
Since prisoners under the differentiated regime spend their outdoor time within a so-called "sociality group," appropriately selected by the prison administration, the Court deemed the two-hour limit set by the criticized regulation (following the reduction implemented by Law No. 94 of 2009) unreasonable and inconsistent with the rehabilitative purpose of imprisonment. This is because, while "it restricts, far more than the ordinary regime, the prisoners' opportunity to access natural light and air, it does not contribute anything to public safety."
The Court also emphasized that "expanding the hours during which prisoners in special regimes can benefit from fresh air and daylight helps create a prison life condition that, not only objectively but also, and especially in the perception of prisoners, can be considered more in line with a sense of humanity."
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