People deprived of their liberty

Article 34 of the Regional Law no. 11/07 sets forth that Regione, in agreement with the Ministry of Justice, through its offices, with Local Authorities and the concerned parties, promotes actions for adult groups that are convicted, internalised and deprived of their personal liberty.

The law sets forth the following actions:

• Policy-making concerning social and labour re-inclusion of convicts and ex-convicts;
• Supporting enhancement of living conditions of convicts in jails through vocational, sport, cultural, entertainment activities and prison labour projects;
• Promoting projects to support families and mediate between victims and offenders;
• Promoting projects to meet specific needs of convicted groups, such as females, mothers with their children, non EU immigrants, people with addiction problems, convicts who need special re-educational treatments concerning the offence committed;

The Law no. 11/07, thus, selects the area of convicted, internalised people and deprived of their individual liberty, as a specific area of intervention in regional welfare policies. The regional social plan, to be approved shortly, will set forth the actions Regione will be responsible for with regards to this sector, notwithstanding that regional responsibilities for penology are shared among several sectors (healthcare, education, training, social policy).

Before the approval of the law and pending its implementation and the approval of the Regional Social Plan, interventions for social inclusion of drug addicted convicts have been promoted.

In fact, Regional Administrations for Social Policy and for Healthcare set up a joint Healthcare/Social policy Fund, symbolically called “Prison Fund” and whose allocation is 500,000.00 € for Campania jails addressing social re-inclusion projects.

Moreover, considering the need to promote projects for specific group of convicts, Regional Administration for Social Policy promoted in 2008 a pilot project called “Chicco Solidale” (Caring Grain), for the social and labour re-integration of women of the Prison of Pozzuoli, the only female jail in Campania.

In accordance with data supplied by the Ministry of Justice as for 31 December 2007, in Campania there are 6,164 convicts, of whom 219 are women.