Toddler Always Thirst

a minute to a minute to detainee held

by the messenger, the 22/11/2010 edition Abruzzo

Stephanie Ortolano

Three bunk beds, three cabinets, a primitive lavatory, a tin of sardines perforated and used as a grater for cheese, a tin of tuna chopped and used as a potato peeler ... These are some of the "ingredients" of the cell two meters by three, a cubicle for three people, range in square Vico Chieti Onlus Voices from within, set up by the prisoners of Chieti and Vasto, with the furniture provided by the Directorate of Prison Inmates. A faithful reproduction of a cell.

E 'a shock event sponsored by the Province, Municipalities of Chieti and Vasto, Bars and Law Societies, Caritas, immigrants Multipurpose Center, entitled "A Moment of detainee" with an invitation to experience first hand for a minute prison. In thousand we have "tried" in the first two days of the initiative and many have left in our guest book signatures and impressions. The most poignant of those children and young people (you took my heart ... I can not breathe ... I'm sorry), reflected those of adults (it's time to remedy to recover the humanity that is within us).

They explained the volunteers of voices from within: "One of the objectives of the initiative is represented by a video message to visitors that we see in the cell and is aimed at young people, and is an invitation not to listen to bad company, to follow the right path, to respect rules and laws. Who is a preliminary part of the workshop held that we write in the prisons of Chieti, Vasto, Pescara and Lancaster. "

But are other meanings of "A Moment to convict," and that is raising public awareness, to reflect and show the reality of our prisons are overcrowded by 70 000 people when the structures it can accommodate 40 000. And forcing those who make mistakes in a condition of prison life hard and undignified, with little chance of recovery, whereas Article 27 of the Constitution states that "Punishment can not consist of treatment contrary to human dignity and must aim at rehabilitating the condemned. "

a difficult reality as well as for prisoners, nearly 30 percent are foreigners, many for drug dealing and / or drug use, even for the prison service, now understaffed and forced to shift heavy and oversized.

"The tools that this does not happen - they said the volunteers - is to create conditions to remove the causes that lead to crime and work in society to accept, after the sentence, who has paid his debt." And on Thursday, the exhibition will move to Vasto.