Execution of sentences and community work: organizational dimension and role of the social worker of ministry of justice in italy

Article 27 of the Italian Constitution reads as follows: “Criminal responsibility is personal. The accused is not considered guilty until the final sentence. The penalties cannot consist of treatments contrary to the sense of humanity and must aim at the re-education of the offender. The death penalty is not allowed” (our translation).

Fundamentally important is the international legislation on the rights of detained persons, which is based on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (1948), stating in Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. This proposition is the cornerstone that affected all future directives concerning the protection of detained people.

In Italy, the office for external penal execution, as a peripheral branch of the Ministry of Justice, is called to contribute, in addition to social security, to the reintegration and rehabilitation of sentenced persons. Obviously, this can only be possible through collaboration and sharing with the apparatuses and bodies of society, with particular reference to the role of the Third sector.

Therefore, one of the main roles of the social workers of Italian Ministry of Justice is to guatantee the involvement of civil society, the promotion of a culture of solidarity and reintegration within the community to which the detainee belongs, reconstructing a sense of communityship and the broken citizen bond.