Submitted by Troy Flagler on the 2016 spring semester program in Tuscany, Italy…
This week we met with the prison director of Volterra. The prison director is a very unique woman with a futuristic take on prisons and their functions. This maximum security prison in Volterra is unlike anything else that we have in America. Here, the prison functions as an active part of the community. The inmates engage in social organizations that tie together the town and the prison itself. There is a restaurant in which the prisoners prepare the meals and wait tables, a theater where the prisoners put on shows for the local community, and a school where both prisoners and high school students attend classes together. Even though the prison features hardcore criminals (fulfilling a minimum five year sentence), the violence rates as well as the suicide and attempted suicide rates are virtually zero according to the director. She made it evident that her mindset is that the prisoners are still human and should be treated as such. Her prison focuses on rehabilitation rather than detention. Another unique thing about the prison is that certain convicts are granted the right to leave the prison during the day to carry out work in a local restaurant, shop or other business in order to not only earn money, but to have employment upon being released from jail. The idea is that if these people have legitimate work after their prison sentence is over, they will be less likely to conduct other illegal activities and wind up back in jail. In America, prison has unfortunately become a business through privatization. Criminals often times are forced to work so that a private company can use cheap labor to produce products. Another difference is that American prisoners are there to be punished, with little efforts being made to educate and employ these people. We have high rates of violence and suicide in American prisons, which may suggest that a change is due to take place. Perhaps we should analyze the outcomes of the social programs in the prison here in Volterra and apply some of these ideas to our own prisons in America.