Article 41-bis prison regime

In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations and impose practically a complete isolation upon a prisoner.

Currently it is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia-type association under 416-bis (Associazione di tipo mafioso), drug trafficking, homicide, aggravated robbery and extortion, kidnapping, terrorism, and attempting to subvert the constitutional system. It is suspended only when a prisoner co-operates with the authorities, when a court annuls it, or when a prisoner dies.

The Surveillance Court of Rome is the court competent on nationwide level on appeals against the 41-bis decree. The European Court of Human Rights found in 2007 that the regime breached two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2002, 300 Mafia prisoners declared a hunger strike and in 2022 Alfredo Cospito began a hunger strike which generated mainstream media attention on 41-bis.