Potholes? In Rome, inmates repair them with a useful and educational social inclusion project.

Thirty socially benign inmates from Rebibbia Prison's G8 section are testing themselves with road maintenance work. They'll receive four hours of work and freedom after a training program that can be used even after their sentences are completed. A model that can be exported and replicated.

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road maintenance for prisoners

ROAD MAINTENANCE FOR PRISONERS

Potholes in the road surface, a bane without joy for administrators, mayors, and barroom commentators. Those in Rome have become a sad social media phenomenon, the subject of much irony. A riot of memes, funny videos, and viral jokes have brought a bitter smile to angry and worried drivers' faces.
And, in fact, there is reason for concern. Often our roads suffer from lack of maintenance and care, and by driving along them you run the risk of damaging your vehicles, incurring small accidents or even falling badly as in the case of motorbikes, scooters or two-wheeled vehicles.

Road maintenance problems most often relate to the budget items, more damaged than the road surface, but often the solution is found in the many small and widespread inclusion projects that thousands of cooperatives organize in the area to give new opportunities to prisoners or people in conditions of social marginalizationLike the "I'll Redeem Myself for Rome" project, the first of ten public service interventions involving 30 inmates of Rebibbia prison. They call them “prisoner asphalters”, engaged in management and maintenance work on the streets of the Capital in different neighborhoods: from Torre Spaccata in Corviale passing through Quartaccio and the Aurelio districtThey are all prisoners sentenced to definitive punishment, the so-called inmates of section G8, not socially dangerous.

ALSO READ: The Campobasso school, where inmates clean. In exchange, they study and graduate (photo)

road maintenance for prisoners
Photo taken from Adnkronos

PROJECT I REDEEM MYSELF FOR ROME

The project, signed after an agreement between Autostrade per l'Italia, Rome Capitale, and the Department of Penitentiary Administration, is not only a way to reintegrate prisoners into the economic and work environment, it has the vision of training them in a broader sense by giving them skills that will be useful even after their sentence is over.
I 30 asphalt pavers Working on the streets of Rome, they have earned a valid and recognized certificate after three months of training provided by Autostrade technicians. Accompanied by prison police and all the tools and machinery needed for the job, the inmates, volunteers managed by the City Council in two teams of 15, will repair potholes every day with hot asphalt, and clean manholes and pedestrian crossings.
But this isn't the only intervention that the inmates of Rome's Rebibbia prison will face. At the end of March, in fact, at least Another 75 of them, 50 from the G8 section and 25 from other departments, will join the waste collection teams.

In the city, however, a pilot project for social reintegration had already been set up which had to do with the maintenance and management of the public green: 40 inmates who leave prison every morning to clean the green areas and parks of the capital for 4 hours a day.

TO KNOW MORE: Potholes in Rome can only be repaired with private funds. Donations, like museums, are available.

PUBLIC UTILITY WORKS FOR REBIBBIA PRISONERS

Il Rome model It seems to be an exportable and successful model, given the many projects that gravitate around the prison of Rebibbia and its guests: not only public service jobs, but also creative writing, a coffee roasting business, a brewery, and a tailoring shop.
If punishment, according to Italian law, should have a re-educational rather than purely punitive purpose, it's important to note that reintegration projects must be implemented, making them models and formats applicable to all prisons. Only then will we be certain we're moving in the right direction, just as all inmates who can regain hope for another chance.

(Cover image - source: Radio Colonna)

STORIES OF REDEMPTION:

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