A passage of soccer between a prisoner and a Justice of the Peace. A volleyball match between penitentiary guardians and common residents.
It might seem to be an inconceivable sporting occasion, however this unprecedented initiative within the Rebibbia jail in Rome noticed the inmates to interrupt the monotony of the day by day routine and participate in a mini-olimpiada referred to as “Games of Hope”
Inside the partitions of one in all Italy’s most crowded prisons: Rebibbia hosts 1,550 inmates, an surprising house has opened. It just isn’t an escape or a celebration, however a gesture of belief.
Four groups, made up of prisoners, brokers, magistrates and common residents, shared the sector, crossing the strains that separate them each day.
It might have been a small occasion, solely 28 of jail prisoners took half, however it was filled with that means.
The video games have been a collaboration between the John Paul II Foundation for Sport, the Department of Prison Administration (DAP) and the community, the game and legality of the magistrates.
And even after its debut episode, the video games are greeted as some of the vital initiatives which were going down within the Italian jail system for years.
And it’s not a coincidence that the occasion debuted in Rebibbia, the place Pope Francis opened a sacred door in jail on 26 December, a part of the yr of hope of the Jubilee of 2025 and an indication of hope and inclusion for everybody, together with those that are imprisoned.
The Hope video games had 4 sports activities groups competing in numerous occasions, together with soccer, volleyball, athletics, desk tennis, desk soccer and chess.
“Like all loopy concepts, that of the Games of Hope was born through the Paris Olympics, the place we offered the e-book Father Henri Didon – a Dominican on the origins of Olimpism. It is for him that we owe the Olympic motto,” Citius Altius Fortius “. We considered bringing Olympic values the place it’s tougher to enter, in jail,” stated Daniele Pasqini, president of the John Paul II Foundation for Sport.
A citadel for social reintegration
In the north-eastern dial of Rome, between the suburbs of Pietalrata and Casal de ‘Pazzi, Rebibbia stands like an island itself.
It just isn’t solely a jail, however a complete detention citadel. Its trendy type was created in 1971 as a response to the overcrowding of the Regina Coeli jail. Today it homes about 2,700 individuals, making it one of many largest and most complicated detention facilities in Italy.
The construction is split into 4 most important sections: the brand new complicated Raffaele Cinatti, the third home, the imprisonment home and the ladies’s institute.
In complete, about 1,927 males and 352 ladies are hosted there, with the proportion of overseas prisoners near 13% amongst males and over 40% amongst ladies.
Those numbers communicate of a fragmented jail inhabitants, usually marked by individuals by the margins of society and really feel a way of private fragility.
Crimes, addictions, exclusion
More than half of the prisoners are in jail for crimes akin to theft, theft and fraud. About 40% are in jail for extra severe crimes, akin to aggressions and murders.
But some of the vital knowledge considerations drug habit: 30-35% are imprisoned for medicine associated to medicine or has a historical past of dependence that has influenced their life selections.
Behind each statistics there’s a story. Small time drug traffickers sentenced as a big -time traffickers, ladies who entered a guilt of guilt to guard a violent companion or guilt and younger individuals with none actual different along with the road.
For many, the jail just isn’t an exception, however a passage already foreseen within the script of their life.
Rebibbia additionally suffers from overcrowding that afflicts your complete Italian jail system. At nationwide degree, with a regulatory capability of about 51,000 seats, the jail inhabitants exceeds 62,000.
In combined cells, there’s a lack of dwelling house, the actions are lowered and entry to care is commonly minimal.
Sports akin to antidote and hope
In this context, the video games of hope have been way more than a sporting occasion.
The president of the Italian National Olympic Committee (Coni), Giovanni Malagò, who took half in a desk of desk tennis, stated: “It was a unprecedented initiative and it was essential to be there, contact, see along with his personal eyes, past all expectations. I actually appreciated the concept of this multidisciplinary match”.
Today in Italy, over 60% of people that depart jail find yourself behind bars. However, for many who handle to ensure steady work, recurrence charges descend to 1%.
This is the rationale why moments like video games of hope have a price that extends properly past the identical day: they provide genuine alternatives for accountability, vital relationships and dignity.
“The video games of hope symbolize a second of assembly between establishments, the world of jail and civil society and the start of a path to be taken collectively,” stated the decide for preliminary investigations on the Court of Velletri, Fabrizio Basei, founding father of the Magistrates Network Sport and Legality community.
Rebibbia is a spot that concentrates the contrasts of our time: justice and revenge, punishment and potentialities, despair and humanity.
He was the boss of the Cosa Nostra jail Totò Riina, but additionally the jail of the author Goliarda Sapienza. Inside, the shadows are many, however there is no such thing as a lack of sunshine.
And generally that gentle begins with a half day of sport.
