Pope visits prisoners in Rome’s main jail

Pope Benedict XVI made an emotional visit yesterday to Rome’s main prison, meeting detainees, denouncing prison overcrowding and calling for greater dignity for inmates everywhere.

The Pope, 84, spent over an hour at Rebibbia prison, fielding questions from half a dozen inmates, who spoke of their despair at being kept in overcrowded cells, away from their families, some of them sick with Aids.

The pontiff told the 300 men and women gathered in the prison chapel that he loved them and prayed for them. He reminded them that Christ was imprisoned before being sentenced to “the most savage punishment” of all – death.

Pope Benedict urged the government to overhaul the system so prisoners were not subjected to a “double punishment” by serving time in insufferable conditions.

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