As Italy endured its hottest summer in 75 years, temperatures inside prisons regularly topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with inmates sleeping on concrete floors to escape the heat. There are nearly 65,000 inmates in Italian detention facilities, crammed into cells built for less than 47,000. At Rebibbia prison in Rome, inmate Fabio Falbo described the conditions as a “claustrophobic hell of stone and flesh.” The watchdog Antigone reported that the heat, combined with a lack of air-conditioning and poor ventilation, placed a significant strain on correctional facilities.

In Puglia, southern Italy, guards filed a complaint after temperatures hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit in a jail. Stefano Carmine De Michele, head of the prison administration department, allocated roughly $920,000 for refrigerators and fans, but stated air-conditioning in cells was not being considered. Warden Claudia Clementi at Regina Coeli prison in Rome noted that installing air-conditioning in the 17th-century convent would be technically difficult. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has pledged to build more prisons and passed a law allowing some drug addicts to serve sentences in treatment centers, but the prison population remains high.