When culture saves

From the 19th century onwards, prisons became the dominant form of serving sentences, over the decades several scholars have wondered whether this is still the only way and what social validity there is in keeping individuals locked up only because of their crimes.

Also in light of the fact that recidivism for those who have served a sentence is still very high, transgressing the constitutional value which intends the sentence as recovery and not just as a punishment. On these and other reflections, 25 years ago, a group of university professors of Turin from the Faculties of Law and Political Sciences set up the University Center for detained students which operates directly inside the Turin "Lorusso Cotugno" prison. Among them was also Professor Maria Cristina Pichetto, who wanted to tell this experience in a book.

In her volume If culture enters prison she traces a path from the reforms of King Carlo Alberto up to today. In the introduction you explain that in the years in which you have taught, and for the 12 years in which you have been delegated by the Rector you have seen the objectives of the founding fathers materialize, at least for a small number of prisoners. Among the many people deprived of their freedom who have studied at the Polo over the years and who have graduated, recidivism is zero. The possibility of obtaining social integration through work through study confirms that "another prison is possible."

«I want to tell the magistrate / I'm a boy but you see a prisoner» «I write verses behind barred doors / I want to tell the magistrate/ I'm a boy but you see a prisoner» are the verses written by a boy who is serving his sentence in a Juvenile Penal Institute. "Listening to the kids, grasping their fragility, helping them to dig into their lives: this is what Francesco "Kento", a rapper who teaches how to express themselves with rap to juvenile prison boys, has been doing for years," says Narrow Horizons.

«You talk about the prisoners but you don't know who they are, you say they are not interested in studying or working, they want easy money to get rich quickly but do you know this reality? I doubt it»: it is the first verse of a rap song that Kento wrote together with the young prisoners of the IPM of Catanzaro, and it is no coincidence that these lyrics are often addressed to a Justice that the boys feel hostile. Francesco "Kento", will speak at the Turin Book Fair to bring his experience as a "special teacher" within prisons for minors, told in the book Barre and in the Barre Mixtape album.

Chiara Genesio

NP Aprile 2023