Caivano Decree: What changes for children?

The Caivano law decree has a full name that sounds like this: urgent measures to combat youth hardship, educational poverty and juvenile crime. These urgent measures are economic investments in particular for the municipality of Caivano, but above all they are harsher penalties against baby criminals: easier prison for minors, suspension from 14 years of age, arrest in the act for minor drug dealing and for crimes previously not foreseen for children between 14 and 18 years of age.

There is no lowering of imputability from 14 to 12 years, the youngest are summoned with their parents who risk up to two years in prison and parental rights if they do not send their children to school. For Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni «these are not repressive but preventive rules. This is the sign of a state that decides to show its face.” The position of the dem secretary Elly Schlein is opposite: «The first impression is that only repression is insisted on, but an investment in prevention is needed».

Urban daspo

The applicability of the so-called “urban daspo” is extended (ban on access to particular areas of the city) to those over 14 years of age. The ban will be notified to whoever exercises parental responsibility and communicated to the Prosecutor at the Court for persons, minors and families of the minor’s place of residence.

drug dealing

To combat the dealing of narcotic substances, it is envisaged that the ban on access and approach to public places and public businesses, foreseen for those who have been reported or convicted for the sale or transfer of drugs, will also apply to those possesses narcotic substances for the purpose of trafficking. This ban is extended to schools, universities and surrounding areas.

Additional measures

The cases in which the Police Commissioner can order other accessory measures are expanding (for example the obligation to report to the police office at least twice a week, or on certain days and times, the obligation to return to the residence and not leave within certain times, the ban on leaving the municipality). The prohibition of access to public establishments and places of public entertainment it can be applied to reported subjects, as well as for crimes against the person and property, also for the crime of carrying an improper weapon, that of violence or threats to a public official and the crime of resisting a public official.

The range of subjects against whom the Police Commissioner can order this ban is expanding: as well as towards people placed under arrest or detention validated by the judicial authority, or sentenced even with a non-definitive sentence, the measure can be applied to people subjected to the precautionary measure of house arrest or precautionary custody in prison.

These measures take longer. We go from a minimum duration of 6 months and a maximum of 2 years to a minimum duration of 1 year and a maximum of 3 years. And the penalties for those who break these prohibitions are toughened, going from a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of 20,000 euros to a maximum of three years and 24,000 euros.

Mandatory road slip

The maximum duration of the ban on returning to the municipalities from which one has been expelled is increased by one year and the sanction becomes more criminal in cases of violation of the expulsion order.

Weapons and narcotics

The right to arrest in flagrante delicto for the crime of “carrying weapons or objects capable of offending” is strengthened and the sanctions are tightened, up to doubling them, from 2 to 4 years.

Oral notice

Currently, the measure is envisaged for adults who, due to their conduct and standard of living, are believed to be living, even in part, with the proceeds of criminal activities and are dedicated to committing crimes that offend or endanger the physical or moral integrity of minors, health, safety or public tranquility. With the new rules, the oral warning is also made applicable to minors aged 14 and over. The criminal sanction provided for adults (imprisonment from one to three years and a fine from €1,549 to €5,164) is extended to minors for violating the provisions of the oral warning.

It is expected that the Police Commissioner may propose to the judicial authority to prohibit certain individuals over the age of 14 from possessing or using cell phones and other devices for data and voice communications when their use served to carry out or disclose the conduct that led to the oral warning.

Warning for young people between 12 and 14 years old

It applies to those who commit crimes for which a prison sentence of no less than 5 years is foreseen. These subjects are not attributable and are then summoned by the Police Commissioner together with at least one parent (or other person exercising parental responsibility), to whom an administrative fine of between 200 and 1,000 euros will be imposed, unless he proves that he was unable to prevent the criminal act.

Criminal trial against minor defendants

The maximum sentence for non-negligent crimes for which the accompaniment of the minor caught in the act to the police offices is allowed from 5 to 3 years. For measures other than precautionary custody, the threshold of applicability to those over 14 years of age is reduced from 5 years to 4. The maximum sentence required to proceed with arrest, flagrant arrest and custody is reduced from 9 years to 6 years. precautionary measures for those aged over 14 for non-negligent crimes.

Arrest, arrest and precautionary custody of the minorover 14 years of age, may also be disposed of for further and specific hypotheses such as aggravated theft, crimes relating to the possession of weapons or objects capable of offending, violence or threats to a public official, resistance to a public official, production and drug dealing.

Pre-trial detention

The possibility of applying precautionary custody to a minor is reintroduced if he, as a defendant, has absconded or there is a concrete and present danger that he will abscond.

Re-education

In the case of crimes for which a prison sentence of no more than five years or a monetary penalty is foreseen, the public prosecutor notifies the minor and the person holding parental responsibility of the request for early settlement of the proceedings, subject to the condition that the minor log in to a path of reintegration and civic and social re-education on the basis of a re-education programme.

The program must include the carrying out of socially useful work or free collaboration with non-profit organizations or the carrying out of other activities for the benefit of the community to which they belong. If the process works, the crime is declared extinguished.

Security of penal institutions for minors

The possibility is introduced that the director of the penitentiary institution asks the supervisory magistrate for authorization for the transfer from the juvenile institution to prison for the prisoner aged between 18 and 21 who has committed the crime as a minor, who with his behaviors, cumulatively: compromises security or disturbs order in institutions; with violence or threats prevents the activities of other prisoners; he takes advantage of the state of subjection he induced in the other prisoners. If the prisoner is between the ages of 21 and 25, the request for authorization is possible if the prisoner has carried out even just one of the behaviors described above.

School

In the hypothesis of absolute dispersion (the minor never enrolled in school despite the warning), a sentence of up to two years in prison is introduced; in the case of school dropout (the minor who, although enrolled, makes such a number of absences as to evade compulsory schooling), the penalty is up to one year in prison. Furthermore, individuals who violate the obligation lose the right to receive the inclusion allowance.

IT control

There is an obligation for suppliers of electronic communications services to ensure the availability of parental control applications within the contracts for the provision of such services. Once fully operational, there is also an obligation for manufacturers of mobile telephone devices (and similar) to ensure the default installation of these applications in new devices placed on the market.