The Department of Penitentiary Administration has 11 regional authorities (provveditorati regionali), responsible for applying the guidelines established in Rome on a regional level.

The regularly revisited law of 26 July 1975 n° 354 details the procedure for the prison service. This law acts as prison rules.

There are several different prison regimes:

• The semi-open regime: under which the majority of prisoners have been placed since 2013. The cell doors stay open for between eight and fourteen hours per day, depending on the facility. The administration implements dynamic security, allowing greater autonomy for the prisoners.
• The alta sicurezza (AS) regime: a closed, high security regime, based on Articles 4-bis and 14-bis. It is broken down into three categories, depending on the type of criminal offence: AS1 (organised crime), AS2 (terrorism) and AS3 (drug trafficking). They are kept away from the rest of the prison population.
• The 41-bis regime: a special prison regime for prisoners charged with acts of terrorism, organised or mafia crime. This stricter high security system was specially designed to break all ties between the prisoners and fellow inmates who may be involved in the same criminal cases. Prisoners under the 41-bis regime are placed under constant surveillance in units reserved for solitary confinement. Time outside of the cell is limited to one hour. The possession of personal belongings is subject to prior authorisation from the administration. All communications with the outside are tightly monitored.¹ In February 2023, nearly 750 prisoners around the country are placed under this regime.

The Italian prison system has several different categories of facilities:

• the case circondariali (CC), detention centres for defendants on remand and convicts with sentences of less than 5 years
• the case di reclusione (CR), for prisoners serving long-term sentences
• the Istituti penali per i minorenni (IPM), for minors.

There are special facilities and units for female prisoners. Some called Istituto a custodia attenuata per detenute madri (ICAM) (open prisons for incarcerated mothers) allow women to keep their children with them.

Over the course of their imprisonment, prisoners’ sentences may be turned into a placement in a casa de lavoro (work house) or in a colonie penale (penal farm).

The Residenze per l’esecuzione delle misure di sicurezza (REMS) (Residences for the execution of security measures) are reserved for those deemed not responsible for their own actions or serving a security measure at the end of their sentence. These facilities have replaced the judicial hospitals (Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari, OPG) since 2016.

Most facilities had between 100 and 500 spaces. The largest prison in the country, Naples Poggioreale, has 2,200 inmates in 2021. The smallest prisons, Lanusei in Sardinia and Grosseto in Tuscany, each hold 28 prisoners on the same date.

All those applying for a role within the penitentiary police must:

• be in full possession of their civil rights
• be under 28 years old
• have a secondary school qualification (grade 2)
• pass a competitive theory exam
• pass psychological and physical tests

The initial nine-month training course is provided by ten or so schools across Italy. A Master’s qualification in prison and constitutional law is also provided in collaboration with the University of Rome III.
Further training is delegated to regional departments and made available to penitentiary police officers throughout their career.

The basic average income of a prison officer, including allowances and bonuses, is approximately EUR 1,800 per month.