Children behind bars, the latest arrival is three months old

He arrived together with his mother just under a week ago in the Roman prison of Rebibbia. Only3 months old, he is of Croatian origin and spends his days in a cell. His mother, of Roma ethnicity, was arrested for property crimes, theft and pickpocketing. Together with him there are also two children, an Italian and a two-and-a-half year old Pole. The Polish child in the cell with his mother, waits for the nuns or prison volunteers to play. The Italian child goes to kindergarten, accompanied by prison volunteers. Their activities beyond the bars are few and depend on the availability of volunteers and prison police officers. For children who are not formally prisoners, there is no programme. They could go out but their 'freedom' depends on the availability of those who can take them to the world outside where there are children, who are free indeed. With the arrival of the three-month-old baby, there are now 25 children in prison with their mothers. There are 2,611 women in Italian prisons, equal to 4.3% of the total prison population (61,480). Among them are mothers, because the rule obliging women with children under 12 months of age to defer the execution of their sentences has not yet passed. Even in the very recent prison decree that has just become law, the deferral of punishment remains discretionary.

Theirs are painful stories. This is what happened to a 26-year-old woman who, last March, lost her baby in the Sollicciano prison in Florence due to pregnancy complications. A sad repetition of what had already happened was in July 2022 in Milan's San Vittore prison and in March 2019 in Pozzuoli. While at the end of August 2021, a 23-year-old girl gave birth in her cell in Rome's Rebibbia prison, helped by another inmate.

Recent story a two-year-old boy who is in the Rebibbia prison, with his mother, while his father is detained in another wing. He leaves to go to an outside nursery school only three times a week, thanks to the volunteers of the association 'A Roma insieme Leda-Colombini'. She says "yes" "no" "mum" "dad" "open" and "close".

A problem that cannot be solved with the Icam facilities, created in 2007 for mothers who are not eligible for alternative measures to prison. They have plainclothes agents, there are no cells and the walls are coloured. But they are few and there are bars on the windows.

The guiding criterion dictated by our constitution and supranational courts is the best interests of the child. Yesterday, however, the agenda on mother-in-prisoners to prevent minor children from living in prison with their mothers did not pass in Montecitorio. After a big scuffle, the government withdrew its positive opinion due to the refusal of PD parliamentarian Marco Lacarra, who had presented the agenda in favour of mother-inmates, to also accept the signature of League parliamentarian Simonetta Matone.