Justice, bill arrives with obligation for future magistrates to spend 15 days in prison among prisoners

After winning the competition, a training obligation for future magistrates to spend 15 days among ordinary prisoners. This is part and parcel of a proposal devised by the Leonardo Sciascia's Friends Association, chaired by lawyer Simona Viola, to be presented in Parliament. The initiative is co-sponsored by the Fondazione Enzo Tortora, the Società della Ragion and the Italiastatodidiritto association, chaired by lawyer Guido Camera, who drafted the text with a working group of lawyers and university lecturers. An idea in fact already belonging to Leonardo Sciascia who in the 'Corriere della Sera' of 7 August 1983 launched the proposal that magistrates should spend at least three days with prisoners. Not even two months earlier, Enzo Tortora had been arrested, the beginning of a painful journey until his full acquittal on 15 September 1986 in the Court of Appeal, later confirmed in 1987 in the Court of Cassation. The sense of the proposal lies in the need to enrich the training framework of the judiciary, with cultural and human experiences that will help future magistrates in the performance of the delicate function they are about to exercise.

The bill for now has the support of +Europe, but is open to the consent of the majority of political forces. And it is brought to the attention of Minister Nordio, who is engaged in justice reform. The proposal was moreover enunciated by the Minister of Justice himself, on 18 November 2011 in Palermo, during the second Leonardo Sciascia Colloquium organised by the Association of Sciascia's Friends as the first proposal that he would have addressed to Parliament if he had ever become Minister of Justice.

For future magistrates, a fifteen-day internship in prison experience is also planned, including an in-depth study of conflict mediation techniques and alternative measures experiences. As well as the study of literature dedicated to the role of justice and prison law. The proposal on days in prison, in particular, highlights the need for young magistrates to have a meaningful experience in prison, also delving into conflict mediation techniques and experiences of alternative measures. To approach the human suffering that accompanies the restriction of personal freedom and to participate directly in the condition in which detained persons and the prison system find themselves, serves, in the intentions of the text's creators, to remind us that the exercise of the judicial function is not merely a technical matter.

The compulsory training activity prior and subsequent to the competition for ordinary magistrate therefore focuses on the subject of prison law and the literature devoted to the role of justice as an instrument to guarantee fundamental rights and freedoms, human dignity and mutual respect between persons, as well as the distortions of the principles of the rule of law that can result from deviations in the judicial system.