Justice, Democratic Party on the attack: "We are risking a piece of civilization on prisons"

"The right wanted to take us back 30 years and reopen the conflict with the judiciary, a war that exasperates the spirits. We do not see a constituent spirit, the right continues to force parliamentary measures" . This was said yesterday by the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein at the conference ' Justice according to the Constitution', organized by the Democrats in Rome to take stock of the issue of prisons, on what many speakers have defined as " emotional pan-penalism " and on the separation of careers , which for the leader of the Democrats is nothing other than a reform desired with an "obvious ideological and retaliatory approach " and with which they want to " subjugate another power of the State".

For Schlein, "we are faced with those who believe they are above the law and we cannot accept it: a poorly tolerated judiciary, information to be gagged, opposition seen as an obstacle", in addition to daily criticism of recognized international organizations and "the muscular idea of ​​the right to govern" with "checks and balances perceived as snares ". And on the Keeper of the Seals: "The transformation of Minister Nordio will never cease to amaze me. Are we faced with a case - Schlein joked - of homonymy? The principles of guarantorism denied one after the other" . A criticism of the security decree could not be missed which, the Democratic leader recalled, "proposes 14 new crimes and new aggravating circumstances and fills the prisons. I can no longer stand the hypocrisy of those who talk so much about security and then cut funding to mayors " . And he added: “ A few days after the approval of the security decree, we have proof that we were right: faced with the inability to give answers to the country, we choose to punish those who complain. During the metalworkers' strike, the workers were reported because they were protesting . This is the objective of the security decree: not to listen to the workers' cry, now those who complain are punished. Let's give the metalworkers full solidarity”.

During the meeting, several PD parliamentarians from the justice committees spoke, including the vice president of the Senate Anna Rossomando : " It is clear that this constitutional reform has little to do with the separation of careers. Because even without considering that today the transfer of function is limited to 0.39% of magistrates, if that had been the objective, it would have been necessary to discuss, evaluate proposals, and really discuss in Parliament. Instead, the majority has only one priority, to approve as soon as possible a law that in reality aims to attack the role of the CSM and the institutional structure of the judiciary in the constitutional framework". The Democratic Party leader Debora Serracchiani focused on the issue of prisons: " The issue of justice touches the living flesh of our fellow citizens and the issues connected to prison, in particular, represent the emergency of emergencies. As demonstrated by the serious and unprecedented incident that occurred in the Marassi institute in Genoa, where a young 18-year-old prisoner, with no criminal record, detained for a minor crime, was raped and tortured for two days without anyone seeing anything. On the issue of prison, we are gambling a piece of our credibility and our civilization ." And she announced: "We hope that this dramatic event can spark a movement of change to ensure that these can become places of dignity in which to live and work. We have resumed the initiative of the States General on the execution of sentences and the Democratic Party will present an update of that work."

On the critical issues in the CPRs, the deputy Rachele Scarpa spoke instead: "The system has degenerated in the last twenty years and today administrative detention represents in all its violence and absurdity the criminalization in the name of pan-penalism of the irregular condition of foreign people, making this condition a real guilt to atone for, in a country that however does not provide any tools to regularize one's situation. The conditions of detention in the CPRs are inhumane, with even fewer guarantees than those we find in Italian prisons and it is only for propaganda reasons that the Italian government chooses to invest in this "model", even trying to export it to Albania". Michela di Biase spoke about restorative justice : "For us, restorative justice is not an alternative to criminal justice, but it is essential to accompany it and help heal the deep fractures that have been created not only between the offender and the victim, but also within society" .

The debate was also open to academia, the legal profession and the judiciary. Francesco Petrelli, president of the UCPI, recalled that the Union has "attacked the government on prisons, on the security decree " and that " we have never failed to support the judiciary when it has been hit". This is to vindicate the " secular and transversal" position of Italian criminal lawyers and the "embryonic link with the separation reform ", which "does not belong to this government, it has older roots, which come from the liberal culture of the left ". Instead, the secretary of the ANM Rocco Maruotti criticized the electoral appointment on the reform that will probably be held in spring 2026 : " The referendum will probably become, especially in the absence of a parliamentary debate, a survey on the judiciary on one side and on the government on the other. And it will turn into an institutional conflict that no one should hope for". Finally, for Professor Roberto Bartoli, full professor of criminal law at the University of Florence, " with the security decree we have gone from criminal populism to criminal sadism" as it was drawn up "to increase fear and wickedness".

FROM

Angela Star