Italy: Between Amnesties and Emergencies

Amnesties, reform on paper, and emergencies suspending reform, aptly describe the vagaries of the penal system in Italy. As we have seen, processes of decarceration and recarceration may be conducted by judicial decisions rather than through binding legislative measures. The general climate prevailing in the country may affect the number of the individuals punished and the nature of the punishment inflicted. This, however, does not seem to affect the corrupt elite ruling the country, whose criminality reproduces itself irrespective of the general climate oscillating between harshness and leniency. The ‘correctional’ notion of imprisonment, in spite of its ambiguity, was destined to accompany the Italian penal system to the current time, and to degenerate in the establishment of rules encouraging ‘repentance’ for the crimes committed and the obligation to apologise to the victims or their families. Overcrowding in Italian penal institutions is caused by specific anomalies distinguishing the country from other European partners.