Prison planet

One of the crucial issues that not only today but also in the past years have not been able to resolve is the “prison problem”. It even seems superfluous to reiterate that the lack of attention to the needs of those who live behind bars - inmates and prison workers - has produced and produces dramas and even tragedies, such as the recent cases of ferocious mistreatment and suicide of inmates. There has been no shortage of attempts to combat this situation, and even Sermig, in its own small way, has taken some steps in this direction since the 1970s, trying in various ways to ensure inmates the possibility of a real recovery with a view to full reintegration into civil life, which is what our Constitution provides. Our community had approached the world of prison in Turin at the Le Nuove prison, where Ernesto Olivero was a volunteer, meeting the inmates who asked to speak to him. Later, the meeting with some dissociated inmates, belonging to the subversive fringes of the left and right, led to the creation of the Agape Cooperative, a work cooperative, the first in Italy, which operated both inside and outside the prison. The aim was and is to break the isolation of the inmates by encouraging contacts with the outside world and at the same time sensitize civil society on this cross-section of the world that cannot be ignored and abandoned. By frequenting the remand prisons and maintaining contact through a close correspondence with the inmates we learned of stories of desperation that helped us to mature the awareness that man in any case is not his mistake and has the right to have a second chance.

In this regard, in the Porto Azzurro penitentiary during the 1987 uprising we came into contact with Pietro Cavallero, a lifer, known to the public for a famous series of robberies that took place in the 1950s, later recounted in Lizzani's film, Banditi a Milano. When he obtained semi-liberty he came to live at the Arsenale della Pace where he changed his life, completing his human journey in the service of the poor and his former prison companions by accompanying them in their reintegration.
In November 2000 we sent a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the presidents of the Chamber and Senate and to political representatives of each party in which we proposed “The Time of Remission”: «This is a gesture of clemency that is more than appropriate, which will find the right way to be implemented in the legislative wisdom of the institutions in charge. It is a gesture of generosity, an opening of credit towards people who have made mistakes and who for this have been rightly sanctioned by our system, but it is also a practical measure that can contribute to humanizing many prison institutions by reducing the prison population. The Time of Remission can concretely disarm a part of our society through a gesture of indulgence shared by believers and lay people, by representatives of the various political forces, by groups and associations, by vast sections of the population».

The proposal was not followed up, but we are not discouraged and we continue to accompany the “prison planet” at the Arsenale della Pace, accepting to the extent that we can the requests of lawyers to be able to include in a time for community service for those who have broken the law. This also seems to us to be a gesture in favor of justice, because man is never his mistake.


NP November 2024
Sermig editorial team