“No conflict with Mattarella” –

After the signing, by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, of both the provision on prisons and the abolition of abuse of office, the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio, in an interview with Il Giornale, commented on the situation as follows: “We have never doubted it. Also because the wise advice of the president has always been held in the highest regard. He has always shown great sensitivity to prison problems, and therefore we decided that it was appropriate to inform him of the initiatives we are adopting. Furthermore, as president of the CSM, he must be informed of the difficulties we encounter in solving the problem of surveillance judges. There are few of them – he explains -, the length of early release of prisoners who are entitled to it depends on them. And currently it is not possible to integrate the number by applying magistrates from other offices”.

“Preventive detention is regulated by the code, and even worse, it is applied, unreasonably, both in its restriction and its extension – continues the minister -. The other day a man killed his wife in a fit of rage and jealousy, then went to the Carabinieri, handed over the weapon and confessed. Well, strictly speaking this gentleman could not have been imprisoned, because the three conditions known to all were missing: there is no risk of the crime being repeated, because he killed the only wife he had; no escape, because he had turned himself in, and no tampering with evidence, because he had handed over the weapon and confessed. So the judge must use his imagination, because no one would tolerate a flagrant murderer at large. At the other extreme, we have tens, hundreds, thousands of people who are imprisoned before the trial and who are then acquitted, or sentenced to a suspended sentence. We need to intervene on the law. By intervening on this law, we would reduce the number of prisoners by a few thousand units. It must be done”.

On the provision for the detention of pregnant women or women with small children, she replies: «The current legislation minimizes the possibility of incarcerating a pregnant woman or a woman with a child to care for. But I would like to point out that motherhood is such a sacred subject that it is almost blasphemous to make it an instrument of impunity. Everyone has read about the woman who must serve thirty years in prison, and who has collected over 150 convictions for property crimes, who has always remained free because she is the mother of ten children. It is an insult to women». The data shows that feminicides are on the rise. «On the one hand, many men do not accept a situation of equality, and on the other, many women are reluctant to report abuse, mistreatment, and even violence. They do not know that the State is on their side and has provided many protections that they could avail themselves of», says Nordio, speaking of «free legal assistance. Women must immediately turn to the structures that can assist them. This is why we have created a brochure that explains the dynamics of this sad phenomenon, and gives useful advice on how to deal with it. We have the broad collaboration of all the most important associations in the country, from the Red Cross to Confcommercio, as well as the Local Health Authorities of course». Not just feminicides. Violence and rape are increasing. On the street, at home, in the family. «Rapes and assaults are all hateful, but those in the family are downright sacrilegious. Here too, educational work is needed, because even today there are husbands who consider their wives a res, a thing, a sort of sexual object. The judiciary, and also the legislator, certainly have a lot of past faults. Just think of the difficulties, until a few decades ago, in condemning the perpetrators of sexual violence, because the woman was almost always considered more or less consenting. It makes you shudder to think that when I entered the judiciary, the crime of honor still existed, and the citation of the vis grata puellis, that is, the strength that girls ultimately like.”