Pathological addictions represent a crucial challenge for the social, health and penitentiary systems.
Numerous prisoners in Italy suffer from such addictions, with a signifi cant impact on prison numbers and on recidivism of related crimes.
According to data from the XXI Antigone Report, approximately 34% of the prison population is in prison for violating drug legislation, and as many as 40% of those entering prison use drugs [1].
This indicates that a signifi cant portion of prisoners have addiction problems, with important implications both on the health level (spread of infectious diseases, need for specifi c treatments) and on the level of prison security and overcrowding.
People with addictions, often involved in minor crimes related to the consumption or procurement of substances, risk being trapped in a vicious cycle in which traditional detention can aggravate the condition of addiction without offering real opportunities for recovery.
Consequently, for decades the Italian legislator has recognized the need for alternative measures to detention
specifi cally designed for drug and alcohol addicts (2-4), with a view to combining security needs with the protection of the health and social rehabilitation of the convicted person.
Such measures aim to shift the focus from mere custodial punishment to therapeutic and reintegration paths, considered more effective in reducing recidivism and the social impact of addictions.
In this general introduction, the relevance of the topic is therefore evident: offering treatment opportunities instead of prison to addicts brings multiple benefi ts, including a decrease in new drug-related crimes, a reduction in the pressure on prisons and an improvement in public health outcomes (reduction in overdoses, spread of HIV/HCV, etc.) (5-6).
In the remainder of this paper, we will analyse the current Italian regulatory framework on the matter, the different types of alternative measures provided, the criteria for accessing them, the differences in their application across the country and the data on their effectiveness, to then discuss the remaining critical issues.