ZERO RECIDIVISM - STUDYING, TRAINING AND WORKING IN PRISON: FROM PROJECT EXPERIENCES TO SYSTEM ACTIONS

01 maggio 2024

FOREWORD 


The rehabilitation of prisoners is an extremely complex policy objective, as many factors (contextual, person-related, relating to the prison experience) contribute to it. In the design and implementation of programmes and public policies in favour of the rehabilitation and reintegration of detained persons, it is therefore necessary to take into account at least three elements of complexity that influence their effectiveness: 

- the variety of issues to be addressed, which requires a systematic commitment to the post-release needs of detained persons; 

- the ever-changing social problems and the need to develop a long-term commitment to stable reintegration. 

- the complex management of collaboration between prison administration and external actors. 

 

THE VALUE OF TRAINING AND WORK IN PRISON 

Empirical research has widely demonstrated a relationship between an individual's employment status and his or her chances of committing a crime. It has been verified that job instability and high unemployment are linked to higher arrest rates. On an individual level, unemployment is not only a risk factor for criminal activity, but also a factor that affects individual identity and self-esteem. In addition, the crime rate is negatively correlated with the wage level, and illegally obtained earnings tend to decrease as money earned through legal means increases. It has also been observed that crime is often linked to disadvantaged social conditions, in particular unemployment, and that prisoners who were unemployed before prison are more willing to participate in a training programme, find a job after prison and reduce recidivism. The importance of training and employment initiatives during the final part of the sentence enforcement is also evident, in order to effectively prepare and guide prisoners towards a path of reintegration. 

 

THE ROLE OF THE CNEL 

Within the framework of the implementation of the Programme of the 11th Term, and in execution of the Inter-institutional Agreement signed on 13 June 2023 by the Ministry of Justice and the CNEL, in the light of the analysis and study activities carried out and of the relevant evidence acquired, the CNEL Assembly, in its session of 19 March approved with a unanimous vote a document of observations and proposals providing for the establishment of a "Permanent Secretariat for the economic, social and labour inclusion of persons deprived of their liberty", with the purpose of promoting and fostering inter-institutional and sector-based cooperation to facilitate the functioning of the institutional governance system and the necessary, constant and reciprocal interaction with the social, economic and labour forces to increase the employability of prisoners and drastically reduce recidivism. 

This initiative is systemically connected with the additional agreements that CNEL has recently signed with the National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Detained or Deprived of Liberty, the Cassa delle Ammende, the Conference of Presidents of the Regions, the National Association of Italian Municipalities (Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, ANCI), the National Microcredit Agency, Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce (Unioncamere), Assolavoro, Italian Association for Personnel Management (Associazione Italiana per la Direzione del Personale, AIDP) and one of the main realities of the third sector (the Community of Sant'Egidio, Fondazione San Patrignano).

By setting up the "Secretariat" service at the CNEL, the intention is first of all to make resources and expertise coming from different Administrations, the employers' and trade union organisations represented in the CNEL, the business world and the third sector synergic and convergent. This is intended to provide a hub and a functional connection point for the activation and facilitation of contacts between the Prison Administration and public, private and third sector subjects in relation to interventions, projects and initiatives aimed at training, including vocational training, and work placement of prisoners and former prisoners. 

 

THE WORKING DAY  

In order to provide a consistent follow-up to the preliminary and analytical activity carried out by the CNEL Technical Secretariat in agreement with the Offices of the Department of Prison Administration, a working day was scheduled at the CNEL, addressed to all public and private stakeholders already engaged in the sector, identified as a result of a preliminary survey that concerned both the organisations represented in the CNEL, and the various economic, social, entrepreneurial and third sector realities surveyed through the support of the DAP (Prison Administration Department), the network of regional and territorial authorities and banking foundations.  

The initiative intends to take on an operational connotation, in that, starting from the illustration of the results of the analysis and observation activities already carried out in this first phase, it intends to address the issues relating to training and work in prisons by defining proposals and preparing solutions with respect to the various implications, obstacles and criticalities identified at the various levels. 

The primary objective is to make the most of existing experiences, skills and intervention models, by introducing them into a multi-level governance process starting from the work already carried out by the Unified State-Region Conference through the recent adoption of the “integrated system of interventions and services for the socio-occupational reintegration of persons subject to judicial measures by the National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Detained or Deprived of Liberty” and the establishment, with the operational support of “Cassa delle Ammende”, of regional steering committees in charge of the adoption of specific action plans.  

It is in this framework, therefore, that the idea of establishing a “Permanent Secretariat” at the CNEL is grafted, called upon to play a role of boost and operational connection between the institutional network of central and local public bodies, to which competences and functions on the subject are attributed at the various levels, and the social partners and the third sector. 

This initiative intends to draw together such competences and functions, and contribute to the creation of an institutional governance model that enhances the fabric of intermediate bodies, which, in various capacities, at the level of business, trade unions, voluntary work, cooperation and social enterprise, works for the pursuit of the objectives of social and labour reintegration of persons deprived of their liberty and the consequent reduction of recidivism. 

The CNEL, therefore, as a hub capable of interconnecting, by framing them in an efficient and widespread organisational context aimed at the entire national prison population, the resources and living energies of society, of its economic, social and labour forces, with the prison "system", implementing the principles of proximity, congruence and territorial balance and within a framework of "rules of engagement" to reduce temporal and territorial limits, overlaps, dispersion of resources and excessive bureaucracy, and to initiate homogeneous impact assessment processes with respect to the needs, outcomes and effectiveness of the interventions. 

Such a process of interaction and sharing, while respecting the specific competences assigned at the national and local levels, through the Secretariat will also ensure the necessary structural and synergic coordination of the good practices already in place, trying to cross-reference and match them with territorial networks, logistic and financial resources, also through any appropriate involvement of the entrepreneurial system and donorship initiatives. 

The CNEL intends to cooperate with the relevant institutions on the issue of work and training in prisons, in its capacity - as stated by President Renato Brunetta - as "a place where interests and responsibilities, rights and duties, private and public sectors, dialogue and blend together with the voice of employers, trade union and voluntary sector representatives, as well as the country's cultural and scientific excellence". 

At the end of the works, the establishment of the Secretariat will be formalised, to which public and private organisations wishing to contribute to the objectives set out in the working document illustrated during the day can join. 


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