Elisa Pallotta Never so many boys in prison and institutions for minors are increasingly crowded. In Bologna it is record attendance, as in the other sixteen juvenile institutions, following the effects of the Caivano decree and of the many unaccompanied foreign minors. “When I hear the noises outside I want to go back there more”, says Abdel (fictitious name), one of the boys who crowd the former fifteenth-century convent that has become “the Pratello prison”, the juvenile penal institute (IPM) of reference for Emilia-Romagna and Marche, located in the centre of Bologna, where the movida.
The number of children in juvenile detention centres is growing
“It has never happened before,” the operators point out. This is confirmed by the condition of this two-story building (one for under 18s, the other for up to 25 years old) in which in every room they sleep a couple more guys. The discomfort of overcrowded cells elsewhere has turned into riots with “104 rooms destroyed”, as calculated by the Ministry’s Juvenile Justice Department. “If previously a boy who ran away from a community received a month’s increase in sentence, now he is sent to us”, reports director Alfonso Paggiarino, close to retirement after 25 years at Pratello. This starting from Caivano decree of the September 2023, which provides for a greater possibility of resorting to precautionary measures. The current overcrowding (about sixty more people at a national level), sees stories of unaccompanied foreign minors, who left from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, sometimes escaped from the communities, ended up committing robberies and ending up in prison. Their stories highlight the lack of places in private social centers. "Seven more have been approved and there is an agreement for the establishment of experimental communities for some disorders", the head of the Department for Juvenile and Community Justice, Antonio Sangermano, appointed by the Minister of Justice Nordio, anticipated in Parliament. "The problem of unaccompanied minors it will fall”, reports Sangermano “on the Juvenile Justice Sector. “We want the kids to come out with one less addiction,” says Dr. Mir Jafar Semnani, an Iranian, while explaining how in the IPM in Bologna “we don't give drugs that they create addiction. Even if some threaten to cut themselves”. And he continues: “They ask for substances because they can’t sleep: fortunately the Region” he explains, “has included melatonin among what it provides”.
The number of new entries in recent years
Bologna, with 150 new entries, is positioned immediately after the structures of Milan, Turin e Nisida, confirming a growing trend that in recent years has seen ever higher numbers: from 835 in 2021 to 1.910 in 2024. The majority of these young people are awaiting trial, a condition defined by an expert as "suspended entries", confiding that he had never "seen similar situations". Faced with this reality, another alarming fact emerges: the growing involvement of young people in increasingly serious crimes. From the increase of sexual violence, robberies with knives and, in some contexts, murders. Furthermore, the crimes committed are increasing more and more in a group with “gangs that become the shield” reflect the operators “of individual fragilities”. In the meantime, three other new institutes are about to be reopened, as Sangermano estimates: the one in Rovigo “by March 31”, he had said in the hearing; then L'Aquila and Lecce. “There are no bad kids”, teaches Don Claudio Burgio, chaplain of Beccaria and soul of the Kayros community in Milan. For everyone it is “important to know that there is something outside waiting for them”, reflects Adelaide, a volunteer of the Rava foundation, which deals with educational and professional projects (Palla al centro and Orizzonti) not only in Milan. “I drew the moon because even if it is hidden, it can still be seen. A bit like me”, explains one of the kids in the art laboratory. Even if the kids are right there, in the city center.