The infamous prison, the Regina Coeli, in the Trastevere area of Rome, has become so overcrowded that 50 prisoners have been transferred to Palermo in Sicily. The maximum number of prisoners that can be accommodated in the old buildings is 960 but at the end of August the number of inmates rose to more that 1,000. Two prisoners rights activists in Rome and the region of Lazio, Angiolo Marroni and Luigi Manconi claim that the rights of inmates in Romes prisons are being systematically violated. They have also protested that the transfer of the prisoners to a place so far away has caused distress to the inmates families, who are now unable to make regular visits.