From the re-educative to the restorative model: idea and applications

Abstract

The study starts from the fundamental numerical considerations that defined in January201 the declaration of National Emergency of prisons, to underline how in this conditions, the re-education principle can’t be applied correctly. From this point, the analysis of the relevant international laws and the individuation of paragraphs that celebrate the principle, work as premises for the interpretation of the HRC Jurisprudence, whose aim is the creation of the “rehabilitation duty”, still hardly applicable in the concrete cases. Variables that can influence the reintegration phase have been considered as well, in a comparative perspective, thanks to an international recent survey of the Quacker Council. A lack of useful data is evident both at European and Italian level. Due to the mentioned factors, the natural strategy to respond to the penitentiary emergency seems to be the use of restorative justice models that, implemented currently in a large number of Countries worldwide, are able to implement the re-educative principle in regard of sentenced people as well as the reparation of external society which suffered the consequences of the crimes, giving good chances to reduce recidivism.