On Rai3 the doc ‘L’isola rediscovered’ turns the spotlight on the re-educational value of the sentence

While in Italy the scandal of violence in prison creates confusion, the reflection on the reform of the prison system continues with the proposals of the Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia. In this context, Rai Documentari offers a historical account of the penitentiary of Santo Stefano on the island of Ventotene, from its construction in 1793 to its final closure in 1965: in ‘L’isola rediscovered’, the author Salvatore Braca reconstructs its vicissitudes, addressing the very topical issue of punishment, life imprisonment and living conditions in prisons. After recalling the stories of imprisonment of fathers of the fatherland such as Luigi Settembrini and Sandro Pertini, the documentary tells the transformation of the penitentiary into a place of redemption, thanks to the arrival, in the 1950s, of the enlightened Director Eugenio Perucatti. In the name of art. 27 of the Constitution, Perucatti adopts an innovative prison model based on the recovery of the prisoner through work and involvement in activities such as sport and cinema. Perucatti wanted, in fact, to restore meaning to human dignity and hope to those who had made a mistake, anticipating the times of the Gozzini law. Unfortunately, however, with the political changes of the 1960s, he was forced to leave Santo Stefano which returned to being a maximum security prison, until its closure in 1965. The year to suffer from which the slow and inexorable collapse began. Today, after more than 50 years, the government project for the recovery and enhancement of the former Bourbon prison entrusted to Silvia Costa rekindles the spotlight on Santo Stefano. A great challenge that has recently started, that of redeveloping the former prison, today a national monument, and making Santo Stefano a multifunctional cultural center of higher education and civic education aimed at young people from all over Europe, a place that stimulates reflection on human rights and the prison sentence in the Mediterranean context. “The acts of violence in the prison of Santa Maria Capua in Vetere make the issue of human rights and the living conditions of prisoners even more topical, at the center of this documentary – declares Duilio Giammaria, Director of Rai Documentari – As underlined by Minister Cartabia, everyone must do their part and take action so that the dignity of the person of the prisoners is respected and the humanity that must characterize life in pententiary institutions is guaranteed “.” my bond with Ventotene and Santo Stefano is something unique that has led me to work in Ventotene since 1983 – said Salvatore Braca, author of the document ario ‘L’Isola Ritrovata’, which in the last 20 years has directed more than 400 documentaries and reportages all over the world – I felt the need to continue my journey with a focus on the former prison, a symbolic place where key personalities of our history. The technique I used is that of docu-fiction and, as evidence of the authentic relationship that binds me to the island and its history, I have chosen to use the inhabitants of Ventotene as actors and extras, each of them strongly linked for different reasons, to Santo Stefano “.” This work of mine, carried out before the restoration works began – underlined Braca – gave me the opportunity to ‘stop’ time in the moment of the most extreme degradation, after 50 years of neglect, in which the process of rebirth is already present, witnessed by the words of Commissioner Silvia Costa. Collecting the direct memories of people who may no longer be there tomorrow, together with the accurate representation of places where the memory of pain is still alive, seems to me a due act towards the new generations of Ventotene or those who are inspired by it, among which many young people who have chosen to live on the island, in a historical moment in which the spirit of belonging to the history of Ventotene and Santo Stefano, but also to Europe, is even more strongly felt. And it is therefore to young people that I dedicate this work of mine “.” With this splendid and touching fresco of the almost bicentennial history of the former prison of Santo Stefano di Ventotene, created by the director Salvatore Braca, Rai Documentari gives us back the painful story of the former life sentence , the famous Bourbon Panopticon – comments Commissioner Silvia Costa – A very harsh penitentiary that, in addition to thousands of common prisoners, has relegated political dissidents within its walls along all the regimes that have followed one another, including the Risorgimento heroes Settembrini and Spaventa and then, during Fascism, the future constituents Terracini and Pertini. In the 1950s, the enlightened direction of Eugenio Perucatti anticipated the prison reform by 20 years, in the name of Article 27 of the Constitution. And the recovery project, which I have been coordinating for a year as Government Commissioner, inspired by him, intends to make it a ‘School of High Thoughts’, an exhibition path and a European study and training center on human rights and on the conception of punishment and of detention, a place of environmental practice and a seat of artistic residences and cultural production. I am truly grateful to the director Duilio Gianmaria for his sensitivity and for the decision to produce this documentary, and to Rai as media partner of the project for the recovery of the former prison “.” I discovered Perucatti during an educational excursion to the island of Santo Stefano which was attended by my students – says Marco Ruotolo, Full Professor of Constitutional Law in Roma Tre – and from here was born an in-depth path on this Prison and its Director which this year led to the re-edition of the book ‘Why the sentence of life imprisonment must be attenuated ‘written by Perucatti himself, published on his own in 1955 and now re-edited in the series’ Penitentiary Law and Constitution’ directed by me. The considerations on the need to ‘mitigate’ the sentence of life imprisonment are ideally placed between those of two great men who have honored our country, including Luigi Settembrini, who wrote in his Memories that the penalty cannot be ‘blind and ruthless revenge’ , having to have ‘an end and a hope’, and Aldo Moro, who in one of his famous lectures defined life imprisonment as ‘cruel and inhumane no less than the death penalty’ “.” I believe that today more than ever it is important to study how the concept of the Penalty can evolve and precisely from this – he explains – the Master in Penitentiary Law and Constitution was born, established in Roma Tre, which will be joined by the ‘Center for International Studies on Penalty’ that we presented in Ventotene last 26 June. Both are the result of a multi-year research activity on the problems of the execution of the sentence, also in the form of the penitentiary legal clinic inspired by the US experience, which sees our students working alongside experts in the legal information desks from us. established in some Roman prisons. This is why I believe that this documentary will be an important tool for study and reflection “.