«One of the few revolutionary acts that have occurred in Italy in recent decades», said the president of the Club Unesco of Vasto Bianca Campli he defined, introducing the speakers, the institute of restorative justice introduced into Italian law by reforma Cartabia.
There have been, in Italian and world history, acts of restorative justice, but it is the first time that it has been codified in a law. On a global level we can remember what happened after the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid in South Africa. In Italy there have been meetings between family members of victims of terrorism and former terrorists or life experiences like that of Luciana Di Mauro, who forgave one of the boys convicted of killing her husband by accompanying him on a path of rehabilitation, social reintegration and even education and example for others. Luciana Di Mauro met the boy in the Nisida juvenile prison who, crying and almost fainting due to the emotional tension of the moment, asked him if he was willing to forgive her and she replied “yes, but you have to help me to ensure that other boys don’t end up here ”. From that day a human, even emotional, social bond was born, an extraordinary common journey.
«A Copernican revolution» which overturns the hitherto widespread concept of justice defined as restorative justice Francesco Lo Piccoloeditor of the magazine Voices from Inside and president of the association of the same name. Lo Piccolo, an expert and long-standing journalist, animated the debate together with Mauro Palma (formerly National Guarantor for the rights of persons deprived of personal liberty), Gianmarco Cifaldi (Guarantor of Prisoners of the Abruzzo Region and professor of the D’Annunzio University), Marta D’Eramo (Magistrate of the Surveillance Court of breaking latest news), e Fabio Giangiacomo (Lawyer). After the institutional greeting from the councillor Nicola Della Gatta and the introduction, full of strong food for thought, the speakers shared their professional and life experiences and explored critical issues, innovation and various aspects of restorative justice – each from a different perspective – and on the current situation of the prison world. A world that should not be considered detached and separated from the rest of society and in which today’s situation there are social and cultural responsibilities at various levels. The current conception of “justice”, defined as “retributive”, stops at establishing penalties, a sort of “payment” with the deprivation of liberty of the “culprit” for a few years and does not consider social dynamics that should call institutions to responsibility , associations and other social fields. And, above all, in reality it does not consider the victims in the slightest, it stops nothing (the recidivism rate among those who do not have access to rehabilitation and social reintegration paths and only find themselves confined in prison is emblematic) and no “injured ” inflicted on society.
Restorative justice gives victims and social organizations back a role, makes them an active part and questions how we can rebuild and repair after the tear, the wound as it is often defined, inflicted. Restorative justice, Mauro Palma underlined in his detailed and in-depth speech, is reconstructive justice.