In Italy, there are more than 200 ordinary prisons, detaining some 50,000 adults, while the 16 youth detention centers (IPMs) contain fewer than 500 minors.

There are grown-up prisons, and then there are youth detention centers. Whereas much talk is made about the former, not much attention is given to the latter. But notwithstanding the numbers, places of detention always need close monitoring, especially where vulnerable subjects (such as young people) are involved – which is detailed in Antigone's monitoring and yearly reporting of the Italian juvenile detention system.

New challenges

The 2015 report highlights some interesting facts concerning the state of the youth detention centers system: the overwhelming majority of detainees are convicted for property crimes, while others are in for other crimes, including against the person; non-Italian minors are more likely to be detained rather than subjected to external penal measures and they indeed represent 45 percent of the population in IPMs.

It is also important to note how the general decrease of the penitentiary population reduced the population of minors' centers of first reception: during 2014, fewer than 1,550 young people transited such facilities, whereas previous years always saw at least 2,000 visitors. The general decrease was largely produced by the policies adopted after the famous Torreggiani judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.

At the same time, however, the growth of IPM populations, which under a law passed in 2012 include all minors and young adults up to 25, has posed new challenges and is especially problematic to the IPMs that lack the structural capacity to accommodate new detainees.

Class in session

Looking more closely at what life is like inside Italian IPMs, the first area of interest is that of scholastic activities: plenty of curricular courses are offered, ranging from basic language lessons for foreigners to secondary school modules (there are also a few young people who go outside to attend university courses). There is also an ample offer of extracurricular activities, including theater, photography, rap and graffiti, and opportunities to practice sports like football, yoga and capoeira.

Nevertheless, there are not enough teachers, many of whom work on a voluntary basis, and remedial teachers are missing altogether; classroom space is limited – although each and every IPM has a well-furnished library – and, more generally, data on the success of these formative activities are pretty dismaying (with only 201 young persons obtaining formative credits, out of the 1,066 enrolled to courses).

More varied is the situation of professional opportunities: all IPMs offer professional formative courses and some have well-functioning internal productive activities – such as bakeries or Laundromats – which offer job opportunities; some IPMs also offer internships, traineeships and work opportunities, both inside or outside the IPM.

Four things to improve now

Antigone's observation on the youth detention centers system stresses the need to remember the importance of such places as reform continues to the Italian penitentiary system.

Among the 20 proposals submitted by Antigone to the government in June, there is one point concerning the exigency to intervene on the juvenile justice system, especially on four fronts:

• the opening up of the juvenile justice system to more external activities;
• the guarantee of Internet access in each and every detention center;
• the improvement of IPM buildings and design: fewer bars, more open windows;
• reshaping staff to include more specialized pedagogic operators and fewer penitentiary police.

The aim of these measures is to make youth detention centers look less like prisons and more like schools for kids who need a second opportunity.

The whole report is accessible here.