Italian Penitentiary University Centers: Promoting The Inclusion Of Prisoners Through University Education.

This research aims to analyze the right to treatment and re-education of convicts through the instrument of university education. It is no coincidence that general education was put in the first place in the treatment process before religion and work, to emphasize the very instrument that would allow the development of the prisoner's sense of criticality and reflection. In fact, if we start from the axiom that prisoners must serve their sentence within a prison structure and that deprivation of liberty entails a more or less extended stay, it is essential to guarantee them dignified prison living conditions and, above all, that this period should be a precious opportunity for education and an opportunity to recover knowledge and professional training. In Italy, the first "official" course was organized in Padua in the 1960s in order to offer more opportunities to undertake academic studies within a penitentiary institution, while in 1998, the first University Penitentiary Pole (PUP) was founded in Turin. In order to offer more opportunities to undertake academic studies. From that date until today, 92 Prison Institutes have been set up, involving 30 Universities, 177 Departments, and 269 Degree Courses for a total of 926 (897 men, 29 women) students enrolled in the academic year 2019/20. The percentage of students enrolled in university prisons, out of the total prison population, is about 1%. Among them are different prisoners, people in external penal execution who have undertaken studies in prison and who continue them when they obtain benefits, prisoners that are serving their sentences in more restrictive regimes, such as high security and 41bis. This system is unparalleled in other countries in terms of its functional characteristics due to Memoranda of Understanding between the Department of Prison Administration (DAP), the Regional Prison Administration Offices (PRAP), and the various universities in the area.