LEGNANO – Educational trip to Opera prison (in the photoo) for the classes 5th O, 5th Q and 5th Z of ISIS Bernocchi of Legnano. The visit, which took place last Tuesday, March 26, e led by the lawyers of the criminal chambers of Milan, falls within the scope of the legality project conducted in the institute with their support. The students thus had the opportunity to come into contact with the reality of prison life and community, a cross-section of society characterized by its own rules.
A community aimed at re-education
In a first moment of welcome and introduction, it was remembered that prison is indeed a place of detention where they come sanctioned violations of the law – as shown by the Latin etymology of “prison”, from the verb coerciveto force – but also, for those who have to stay there, a house, a place to live and share space, time, interpersonal meetings. As the manager who conducted the visit illustrated, detention should ideally represent a growth path for the convicted person, according to the principle of the re-educational function of the punishment, affirmed by the art. 27 of the Constitution. The objective is therefore to train new peopleready to re-enter ordinary life with acquired added value.
It was explained to the students that this path takes place under the guidance of a team of experts, criminologists and psychologists, also responsible for carrying out scientific observation of prisoners, on the basis of which to evaluate the granting of reward measures. The re-education process takes place through educationallowing attendance at various levels of study courses, up to university faculties, or through work.
Work and support
The boys were then admitted to the work departments, where various tasks are carried out: from assembly – in which the components take shape and become, commissioned by well-known companies, a household appliance, a ventilation blade, an air conditioner – to the digitization of paper documents entrusted by insurance companies, up to violin making, which particularly struck the kids. Here the workers, under the guidance of a master, with great craftsmanship they transform the wood taken from the boats collected near Lampedusa, returning from the migrant journeys, into violins. Violins that were born in the Opera prison are even used at La Scala in Milan for important musical performances.
These occupations are also an opportunity for prisoners to earn, which serves to reduce the debts accrued for maintenance in prison. However, it has been discovered that the possibility of working is a privilege enjoyed by the minority of the prison population. To deal with the most critical situations, they are present in the various sections of the prison “peer supporters”, prisoners who show a particular propensity for empathy and who receive specific training to provide support to other, more fragile, sometimes inmates with psychiatric problems. The visit to the prison represented the opportunity for a very important teaching to the children: educating, and re-educating, is a challenge that never allows surrender.
legnano bernocchi students prison – MALPENSA24
