«The prison system is marked by a serious and now unsustainable condition of overcrowding. Many institutes are structurally inadequate and require renovation interventions to be embarked urgently, in the awareness that space cannot be conceived only as a place of custody, but must include environments intended for sociality, affectivity, the planning of the treatment “: the President of the Republic said so, Sergio Mattarellain recent days, highlighting the need to guarantee a dignified level of life and treatment of prisoners.
This is what, in his little one, tries to put the project into practice Elsewhere – it’s not my pain, Promoted by the Peripheral Officine Volunteer Association in the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in collaboration with various active partners in the area and with the support of the social enterprise with children.
This is one of the passages of Gianni Alemanno’s diary on the situation with Rebib era read in the classroom by Michele Fina of the Democratic Party
Within the Campania penitentiary institution, sadly known for cases of violence and degrading treatment of prisoners by some penitentiary agents, a perimeter of humanity has been redeveloped, with the gaze aimed at protecting the right to parenting.
«For years, for years as volunteers in prison, we have always had an eye for affectivity and needs of minors. However, we realized the lack of a protected environment in which the detained people could find an intimacy with their children as well as an identity as a family unit “so Sara Romitopsychologist and project manager, illustrates the origin of the center elsewhere.
Inaugurated in the Bollate imprisonment house the “Hugs in freedom” project of the Santo Versace Foundation: an outdoor space where the prisoners can spend time with their children in a welcoming and safe context
It is a large interview room in which the grayness of one of the many non -places of the district house of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, since January, has given way to brush strokes of bright colors, games, music and laughter. «Unlike the common rooms provided for in Italian prisons, where there is promiscuity, lots of noise and no possibility of movement or interaction with children, We have redeveloped this space that cancels the physical distances between parents and childrenallows you to mend relationships and mitigate the trauma that families, but above all the little ones, live when they face prison, “says Romito.
Walls with Lego to build and blackboards on which the little ones can draw with colored chalks, shelves full of colored albums and fairy tales, a TV to watch movies all together, a stereo to listen to good music, but also a planetary and a motorized solar system that hopes to learn about the wonders of the sky and even bobs to prepare biscuits: they are the main activities that, thanks to the network of local associations such as the level, Minds films, detained fathers can perform together with their children, in a sort of domestic dimension.
The gaze is also aimed at learning: with the support of the operators of the Social Cooperative Athena, the little ones rediscover the pleasure of doing their homework with their parents. The pride are the Montessorian panels made specifically by former students of the Academy of Fine Arts led by the Montessori Association of Naples: each has a specific theme and various activities to be carried out together. There is the panel dedicated to lacing with many objects to be tightened like hugs between parents and children; the one dedicated to sensory materials to touch and know with your hands; Another with the musical instruments to be played together and another still dedicated to the closures that prove to be openings, so that no padlock can be afraid.
«In this way, the children of the detained people who participate in the project can learn by doing, strengthening the link with their parents. They access the room divided into groups of five families. To encourage the sharing of space, they are always inmates from the same section, which already know each other “explains Romito. And focuses on a small conquest: Those who access the project, instead of an hour of interview, are entitled to three hours to spend in the room with their family.
To cross the door of the center elsewhere are also children who had never gone to visit their fathers in prison: «Due to the difficulty that the restricted parents have in telling their story, Some minors were not even aware of the truth about the fate of their parenti »points out the manager of the project that restores the right value to affectivity.
Through two support groups for prisoners and free partners, in parallel, they also offer support in the revelation of the truth which is difficult to accept, but fills a void. A team of psychologists accompanies them in self -awareness through reflection on their experiences and the analysis of family dynamics. At the same time, always inside the center, a path of family psychotherapy which takes charge of the entire family unit, analyzing the traumatic experience of the prison, between a sense of abandonment, absence and laceration of relationships.
The project elsewhere also reaches those who came out of the penitentiary circuit or people in alternative measures to detention and in testing: in the headquarters of Peripheral Officine, in Naples, a counter was activated, both in the presence and at a distance, listening and support for parenting.
«Children are the direct recipients of our project, but the repercussions are evident on the whole family unit. Often the sentence makes a bomb of shame and guilt in the family explodes, Innocenti find themselves having to serve a sentence imposed by society “says Romito, underlining the urgency to give effective answers to these critical issues to guarantee the children of people with the opportunity to live a happy childhood.
In this path also involve the penitentiary agents who will soon participate in a capacity Building course promoted by the Napolian Association with the support of children without bars. In this way, they will be able to reflect on their role and on the impact that their work has on the life of the prisoners and their family unit, developing specific skills to welcome children in prison and protect parenting.
The network of the project elsewhere is constantly expanding: through the table on the restricted affectivity is also involving the UEPE (external criminal execution office), territorial guarantees of childhood and adolescence, guarantees of the prisoners and territorial social services in consultation meetings on the educational needs of children to expand the territorial opportunities.
«The project will last three years, but our commitment will go further. We are laying the foundations to ensure the warmth of this space and our support to many other people held, also in other prisons, with the hope of being able to return to dozens of children a piece of their existence and the history of their family “says Romito showing how a” elsewhere “is also possible in a penitentiary system in trouble and in a company trapped in prejudice.
Source: Vanity Fair
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