ROME, May 3 (UPI) -- Overcrowded conditions at Italian prisons are resulting in tragic consequences, the Council of Europe said Friday.
The human rights organization said Italy is behind only Serbia and Greece in prison overcrowding, with 147 inmates for every 100 beds, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
The average overcrowding throughout Europe is 105 inmates for every 100 beds, the council said.
Nearly 15 percent of the country's inmates have mental illnesses such as psychosis, depression and bipolar disorder. While some of the inmates were mentally ill before being sent to prison, many became ill from the "hell" of conditions inside the prisons, psychiatrists said.
Prisoners were nine times were more likely to attempt suicide than the general Italian population, the council said.
A December Permanent Observatory on Prison Deaths report found about 60 prisoners commit suicide each year, about 20 times the average of the general Italian population.
Guards also were being psychologically affected by the overcrowding, the council said.
Some 68 suicides by corrections officers were reported between 2000 and 2011.
Italy is also behind only Ukraine and Turkey in the number of inmates awaiting trial.
