The opportunity to study and the prospect of achieving a degree, as a tool for redemption, while being imprisoned in a detention institution. In three years the penitentiary university center of the University of Palermo has recorded around fifty enrolments, including registrations and transfers to years subsequent to the first; nine departments involved and a team of guidance counselors, senior tutors and student tutors to support the detained students.
Thanks to the renewal, at Palazzo d’Orléans, of the framework agreement on penitentiary university centres, the collaboration between the Sicilian Region and Unipa will also continue for the three-year period 2024-2027, together with the universities of Catania and Messina (it will be signed at a later date also with Enna “Kore”) and the involvement of the regional Guarantor of the rights of prisoners of the Sicilian Region, the regional Superintendency of the Penitentiary Administration for Sicily and the regional department of Education and professional training.
“This is a project – explains the Rector of the University of Palermo, Massimo Midiri – in which we believe very much and which has seen us involved, in recent years, with various initiatives and numerous important actions aimed at eliminating obstacles , economic and social, which prevent the right to study of fragile and vulnerable people and which aim at an effective realization of the re-educational concept of punishment”.
The university penitentiary centers in Sicily were launched starting from March 2021. The penitentiary institutions that signed the membership form to the implementation agreement with Unipa are the Antonio Lorusso “Pagliarelli” prison and the Calogero di Bona “Ucciardone” prison. ”.
In the last three years, despite the limitations initially imposed by the health emergency, around fifty registrations have been recorded, including registrations and transfers to years subsequent to the first. The most requested area of study was “Agricultural, food and forestry sciences” followed by “Law” and “Political sciences and international relations”. Also register registrations at the “Humanities” departments; “Cultures and society”; “Architecture”; “Psychological, pedagogical, physical exercise and training sciences”; “Engineering” and “Biological, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences and technologies”.
The University of Palermo has also been responsible for setting up rooms dedicated to study in penal institutions, which will be further strengthened thanks to the purchase of additional personal computers, and the supply of teaching materials as well as exemption from payment of university fees and the regional tax for the right to study.
Also involved in the field are 2 senior tutors, a lawyer and a psychologist, and 13 student tutors, coordinated by the Unipa Orientation and Tutoring Centre, to encourage constant interaction between teachers and detained students. The latter were chosen from among the students of the various degree courses, to carry out orientation functions for study plans, support in exam planning, assistance in studying and preparing theses and retrieval of teaching and bibliographic material.
“This is a challenge – underlines Professor Paola Maggio, Rector’s delegate for relations with penitentiary institutions – which the Rector Massimo Midiri wanted to strongly increase and expand by introducing economic resources and engaging offices and staff in a transversal manner. Significant was the recent appointment of Professor Giovanni Fiandaca as consultant for the orientation and management of the Penitentiary Center and the establishment of a special office called ‘Polo Universitario Penitentiario and interventions for deserving students and those in disadvantaged conditions’, based within the Teaching area and student services. Three years later, we can certainly make a positive assessment thanks also to the collaboration with Professor Beatrice Pasciuta, vice-rector of Inclusion, Equal Opportunities and Gender Policies for numerous related activities”.
Among the projects already carried out: an innovative series of seminars on the theme “Identity in movement”, which involved various courses of study and thirty free and detained students; the international project “GAP – Project Graffiti Art in Prison”, which led to the creation of a documentary broadcast on Sky Arte and a further agreement signed with the office of the Regional Guarantor of Prisoners’ Rights and with the Regional Administration Authority penitentiary which will allow the carrying out, under the guidance of Professor Mario Varvaro, of an educational activity dedicated to restricted subjects for the use of documents from the University’s historical archives and the promotion of the services offered.
