Canton Mombello Prison (Italian: Carcere di Canton Mombello), officially the Casa circondariale "Nerio Fischione", is a prison in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. Opened in 1914, it is one of the most overcrowded prisons in the country. On 19 September 2026 it held 397 inmates, against an official capacity of 182 places. In a report published in May 2025, the Court of Audit found it to be the most overcrowded prison in Italy, with an occupancy rate of 205.4 per cent at the end of August 2024. Inspections carried out in 2024 by the national ombudsman for prisoners and by the Italian criminal lawyers' association described cramped and degraded cells.
The planned expansion of Brescia's other prison, at Verziano, is intended to allow Canton Mombello to be closed.
History
The prison was designed at the end of the 19th century and opened in 1914. It has a T-shaped plan running from north to south, with a watchtower and about 150 cells, next to a wing of offices.
During the German occupation of northern Italy a special section of the prison held political prisoners and partisans, at the disposal of the SS, the political office of the police and the military court. Between 1943 and 1945 the prison held between 400 and 1,000 inmates, against a maximum capacity of 300. Among the political prisoners was the partisan courier Agape Nulli, arrested on 18 August 1944, who was interrogated there by the SS officer Erich Priebke and held until the liberation of the city in April 1945.
During the Allied bombing of Brescia on 13 July 1944, the communist partisan Leonardo Speziale organised a mass escape. Estimates of the number of prisoners who escaped range from about 200 to 280. Later that month Speziale and Giuseppe Gheda, together with about forty other escapees, formed the new 122nd Garibaldi Brigade.
Nerio Fischione
On 5 August 1974 three armed inmates tried to escape and took the prison guard Nerio Fischione hostage. He shut a gate behind him to stop them and was shot by one of the men. The escape failed, and Fischione died of his wounds in hospital on 13 August. In 2016 the prison was named after him.
Overcrowding
Overcrowding at Canton Mombello has been a recurring problem since the Second World War. According to data released by Italy's national ombudsman for prisoners, on 14 January 2024 it had an occupancy rate of 204.95 per cent, the second highest in Italy after San Vittore in Milan. The Court of Audit's 2025 report on the national prison building plan ranked it first in Italy.
At the end of August 2026 Patrizio Gonnella, president of the prisoners' rights association Antigone, listed it among the eight Italian prisons with an occupancy rate above 200 per cent, at 209.9 per cent.
Conditions
In May 2024 a delegation of the prison observatory of the Unione delle Camere Penali Italiane, the national association of criminal lawyers, visited the prison. It found that most cells held at least two or three people and the largest up to fifteen, and that the shower installed in each cell was often a shower head fitted above a squat toilet, close to where inmates cooked. On the day of the visit there were 389 inmates, with 180 prison police officers in service out of 227 planned.
A delegation of the national ombudsman for prisoners visited in August 2024, when the prison held 377 inmates for 182 places. Its report, published in May 2025, described the cells as "indecorous" and said that in some of them beds were stacked three high, which made it impossible to open the windows. It also noted that some sections had no hot water. The ombudsman asked the Ministry of Justice to complete renovation work urgently and to consider every possible reduction in the number of inmates.
According to the Ministry of Justice, none of the cells had provisions for personal hygiene. In June 2026 local newspapers reported that up to fifteen people were sharing a cell during the summer heat, and that inmates could buy electric fans from the prison shop for about 23 euros. Arianna Carminati, the city's ombudsman for prisoners, said that educational activities were reduced in the summer, so that inmates spent more time in their cells.
Verziano expansion
Since 2016 Canton Mombello and Brescia's other prison, at Verziano, have been run by a single management, although they remain separate facilities. The Ministry of Justice plans to add about 348 places at Verziano, so that Canton Mombello can eventually be closed. Preliminary work began in September 2026, while the main contract had not yet been awarded.
Estimates of the completion date differ. The senator Stefano Borghesi said in September 2026 that the works would be finished by the end of 2027, while the Corriere della Sera had reported in January 2026 that the timetable had slipped to 2030. The city administration has argued that the closure of Canton Mombello also requires land outside the current perimeter of Verziano, for work and rehabilitation activities.
Population and staff
According to the Ministry of Justice, on 19 September 2026 the prison held 397 inmates in 182 places, none of which were unavailable. At the end of August 2026 its staff included 206 officers of the prison police, out of 227 planned.
References
123456"Brescia Canton Monbello" (in Italian). Ministero della Giustizia, Dipartimento dell'amministrazione penitenziaria. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
