Legislative offices at work until Monday morning to prepare a decree law – the first of the government of Giorgia Meloni – which extends the time of entry into force of the Cartabia reform of the criminal trial and above all introduces a ‘squeeze’ on penitentiary benefits for those who do not collaborate . “To maintain”, underline sources of Palazzo Chigi, the so-called ‘life imprisonment’ which is for the executive “an essential tool in the fight against organized crime”.
A crackdown therefore considered “priority has become urgent”, say the same sources, also in view of the hearing set by the Council for November 8, when the judges of the Constitutional Court have their own life imprisonment scheduled and are preparing to give the umpteenth push if the Parliament, to which they have already given a year and a half of time, has not intervened.
Provision for examination on Monday 31
The deadline for finalizing the decree is set for 31 October, when the “preparatory meeting” of the Council of Ministers is called. On that occasion, the provision will be examined both on “urgent measures regarding the prohibition of the granting of penitentiary benefits to prisoners or inmates who do not collaborate with the law” and as regards “the postponement of the entry into force” of the reform Cartabia.
The text of the Legislative Decree, the government underlines, “follows the bill no. 2574 already approved in the last legislature »by the Chamber« and aims to avoid the easy release of the mafia ». “It is a race against time – is the executive’s reasoning – to guarantee social security and prevent Mafia prisoners from opening the doors of the prison despite the constancy of the association bond”.
The extent of the provision that aims to preclude with a new rule the use of permits to those who do not collaborate, something already foreseen at present but put in the ‘crosshairs’ by the Council, could have an audience composed of about 1200 inmates sentenced to life imprisonment – for associative crimes of mafia and terrorism – and subjected to the ‘impediment’ regime based on the data of ‘Hands off Cain’, ie without benefits, since they did not cooperate. A population of ‘damned’ for whom the Council believes the ‘hard line’ does not comply with the principles of the Constitution on the re-educational function of the sentence, and of Community law.
Nordio: “Certainty of punishment, but not cruel and inhuman prison”
The Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio said that “the certainty of the penalty, which is one of the cornerstones of guarantorism, provides that the sentence must be carried out, but this does not only mean prison and above all it does not mean cruel and inhuman prison” and indicated more work and sport. Activities that do not necessarily have to take place outside prisons, especially if the government intends to build new ones.