How does the Rome program that puts prisoners to work to maintain the city

A group of 30 people is working to fill the gaps in the Rome highways, one of the major problems of the Italian capital. There are no municipal employees or dealer employees. They are prisoners who participate in an initiative to promote their integration into society and contribute to the maintenance of cities.

Dressed in a combination of orange and blue work and equipped with pipes, shovels and special tools, They are responsible for cleaning streets and drains, covering holes and cracks in the pavement and painting pedestrian crosswalks and markings on the ground..

All are low risk inmates, carefully selected for this work and that they received a previous course to work with finishers donated by the managers of the Autostrade motorway concession holder for the Benetton family.

The dealer, an Atlantia subsidiary, also provides the equipment and tools necessary for this task, which prisoners develop voluntarily and for freeand under the supervision of police and security agents.

For three months, they were trained and learned the techniques commonly used by road conservation professionals. They now put them into practice thanks to a Reintegration program promoted by the City of Rome, the Ministry of Justice and the country's prison authorities.

The project is calling My riscatto by Roma ("I am bought by Rome") and with him these 30 prisoners will take care of and repair the failures of the urban pavement, starting with the peripheral zones. Currently working in the area of ​​Torre Spaccata, in the south of the capital, and will continue their work in the coming weeks in other neighborhoods, such as Corviale, Quartaccio and Aurelio.

The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, a member of the Five Star Movement (M5S), has already used the help of detainees for clean parks and gardensand now he is doing it to close the road tunnels, one of the biggest problems in the capital and which is causing more criticism.

"The This program is fundamental for inmates and the city. We allow these people to perform an activity useful to their reintegration into societyRaggi explained, adding that it was a symbolic gesture that valued people and their right to work.

How is the work day

The day begins at 7:30 amWhen the prisoners get up, they get ready and wait for the arrival of the prison authorities, who accompany them to the work area.

The, they clean sewers, repair cracks and smooth asphalt.

Towards 15:30, they begin the return to the prison of Rebibbia, where they are internal.

Fabio, one of the inmates who participates in this program, explains in a video recorded by the authorities: to be able to get out of jail and work is good for your futurebecause he hopes this will give him the opportunity to learn a trade and open doors to the job market once he has served his sentence.

The Italian Minister of Justice, Alfonso Bonafede, stressed that the government intends to extend this initiative to other cities in the country in order to develop a national plan demonstrating that "the work allows reintegration into society ".

Head of the Prison Administration Department, Francesco Basentini, argued that The project is so successful that some countries have already requested information, as is the case in Mexico.

For this reason, several leaders of this program visited this country of Latin America to explain "the positive aspects and the difficulties encountered to develop such an activity".

(With EFE information)