THE JAILS OF ROME

Before talking about the City Plan for Prisons, I wish to take a brief step back in time to recall a date fundamental for the broad responsibilities which it expresses. In July 2002 the Mayor of Rome , in an extraordinary session of the City Council nominated symbolically the prisons as the XXI Municipality. The City of Rome, as so many other occasions in the past, opened up a new avenue of solidarity and pragmatic work directed to overcoming emergencies that up till then had marked actual situations in prisons. The Citizen Plan today is a network of articulated actions , of representative organisms of the social services and institutions that contribute to making the prison a high moment of our democracy in keeping with Article 27 of the Constitution;

Our work started with shaking the cobwebs off the old practices that were an obstacle to collaboration between various institutions , generating paradoxical situations , dispersing energy and resources. The knot which the plan had started to untie , and which will be at the centre of our work, concerns the exclusion of the great majority of detainees from the programme of re-integration.The reason for this exclusion lies, we think, mainly in the legislation counteracting the Gozzini law which, after tumultuous years of revolt and terrorism, had been leading the Italian prison system in the virtuous direction of democracy. The overturning of the rules of penetential reform, the multi-ethic transformation of the prison population, the socially restrictive effects and exclusion of benefits resulting from the Bossi-Fini Law, the coup de grace delivered to the Gozzini Law by the so-called ex-Girelli law, had led to the collapse of the entire penitential system. Even in these extreme conditions we have not wished to bow to emergency solutions but we have gone ahead with the work of the plan articulating actions which will not shrink from confronting society with a realistic picture of the situation of detainees in prisons today. Though participating in meritricious initiatives in favour of a policy of amnesty and pardon, we have held aloof from the chorus, so as not to introduce into our work and among persons detained demogogic and dangerous illusions. In the prisons we have carried out programmes that do not promise to resolve problems of re-integration, of work, of training and of study with verbal magic,. We are concerned with the social feasibility of projects, the verification of the personality and of the dangerousness of the person detained who must be granted benefits. In short, with the actual results of the project entrusted to the guardianship and guarentee of the community. We have given priority to programmes directed to the the weakest categories: drug addicts, foreigners, transexuals, minors, women, mothers with children of 0 - 3 years, the old and the ill. We have directed our attention to all detainees, proposing projects of education, professional training,cultural courses and learning of trades. In the short run, there will be courses for updating the training of prison operators and personell working at different levels in prisons: volunteers, undertakings and actions in favour of the family members of detainees.

The demand for cultural experience which the Comunes and local bodies have registered in recent years may develope new occupational openings which calls for a high level of preparation. The time of detention can offer considerable cultural scope.. So mportance must be given to new courses of professional training which are innovative and experimental, like those for workers specialised in acheological digs and taking care of green historic areas. The theatre and cultural entertainment have already entered into the life of Roman prisons. Thanks to the sensibility and commitment of professionals who have put themselves at the service of the Artestudio association, and of the Centro Studi Maria Salerno in collaboration with the De Filippo family in section A.S. workshops have been set up and theatrical shows put on, of high quality "Christmas in the home of the Cupiello", the first world performance of Shakespeare's"The Tempest" translated into Neapolitan by Eduardo , with otherson the way. The Comune of Rome which organizes twenty-four hour opening hour openings for shops and cultural events of importance, days to remember, Father'sDay with Francesco Totti and the mayor Veltroni and others . But no-one can forget the innovatory events and those constituting a juridical precedent like the agreement reached by the department for equal opportunities of the Comune of Rome with the Minister of the Interior who agreed for the first time in Italy to a state official visiting prisons at the request of detainees for the recognition of their sons and daughters; The establishing and expansion of services offered by the PID to detainees in the prisons of the provinces; the opening of information desks on the territory and inside the same institutions; projects for providing work thanks to the intervention of the communal COL and of the provincial Work ,Agency, of psychological and economic support, of the social segretariat; A plan that draws attention also to the esigencies of personell in the prison; for example, at Regina Coeli a service of gymnastics has been launched for operators conducted by the UISP; we have instituted inter-institutional round table conferences like that for special permanent prisons and immigration with the committee for equal opportunities; the conference for re-integration work abroad with the Assessorato al Lavoro del comune di Roma; the conference on work in Italy at instututes of PRAP; protocols of understanding for the care of detainees with problems of mental health; thanks to the intervention of the Comune guarantor , a service has been set up providing a shuttle service for members of families visiting detainees; assured for two years the organisation of social and training courses for minors subject to penal proceedings; provision on a three yearly basis for psychological, health and legal support for transexual detainees, opening of reception centres: 5 for adult detainees, 3 for immigrant detainees, 1 for young adult detainees, 35 places for those awarded good conduct prizes, 3 for mothers with children, with activities of training, social and cultural have reached about 1500 detainees of both sexes. 1600 kits of 24 hours, etc;, have been distributed . However, in spite of all our efforts, we have managed to reach a limited number of detainees compared with the thousands in the large institutions of Rome and the Province. This will call for an external plan with different economic and programmed commitments. It will be imperative to overcome hesitations, doubts and delays about measures that constitute a criticism of a prevalently repressive system of sanctions dealing with rising levels of social deviance. Before concluding we must point out that the Prison plan and the Penitentiary Council have promoted actions and proposals for guaranteeing the rights of detainees: like the popular petition in support of modifications to the Bossi Fini and Finocchiaro Law "so that no child cross the threshold of a prison " promoted with the association A Roma Insiem and the Comunità di Sant'Egidio, the National Forum for the safeguarding of the health of detainees male and female . All national voluntary organisations are involved, trade unions, professional, institutional, the guarantors of detainees, that have done important work in support of the law 230/99 and the first monitoring of the updating of the same. We have transferred our experience and our model to prison committees in the Comunes of Milan and Padova, where the mayor has announced the formation of a comunal council in prisons. Besides, we have participated in seminars and meetings in different parts of Italy: Forli, Spoleto, at the international congressItalia Argentina promoted by the Provincia di Roma, and so on. In short, an intensive activity, a commitment at times exhausting, above all because of scarce economic resources and the resistence encountered, but thanks to the sensibility and commitment of the Comune of Rome, the Province of Rome , the Provveditorato Lazio(Lazio authorities), to heads of departments, social services, of pentitentary operators, of all the delegates of various institutions and organisations or committees involved in the plan, we have managed draw up a course of action or modus operandi which is essential. . To conclude, we maintain that the prison belongs to the city with all its contrasts, needs, and changes linked to our epoch. Symbolically the prison has been recognized a municipality because we had already understood the need to strengthen and redefine the framework of guarantees for the rights of detainees and workers in prisons in keeping with our evolving society.