Italy expands program to take mafia kids from their households earlier than they develop into criminals

Rome — Italy has not solely renewed however determined to increase a controversial program to take away kids from their mafia households to interrupt the cycle of prison conduct being handed right down to new generations.

The “Free to Select” mission has been in place within the Calabria area — the bottom of the highly effective ‘Ndragheta crime syndicate — since 2012. Now, it is going to be prolonged to the Sicily and the Campania areas, respectively dwelling to the infamous Cosa Nostra and Camorra mafias.

The purpose of this system is to take away kids from the mob tradition they have been born into and break the generational cycle of crime, giving the youngsters an opportunity to dwell a traditional life.

Authorities can solely take away a toddler if they will show to a courtroom that they are bodily or mentally endangered by their household’s criminality. Police and social staff then swoop in with out warning and take the kid away. The households haven’t any say within the matter.

To this point, 150 kids have been faraway from their households and positioned in foster care in secret areas across the nation. Thirty moms have chosen to affix their kids, with seven additionally agreeing to behave as witnesses for state prosecutors.

“It is a historic second within the combat in opposition to the mafia,” Justice Minister Carlo Nordio mentioned on the signing of the doc extending this system, which was attended by 5 authorities ministers and the Italian Bishops Convention.  “The combat in opposition to the mafias can also be fought by opening new paths to generations able to freely deciding which future to dwell.”

Roberto di Bella, who based this system, mentioned on the signing ceremony that in his 25 years as a juvenile courtroom choose in Calabria, he discovered himself attempting fathers, after which their sons. 

“We tried boys for attempting to kill their moms who needed to separate from their mafia husbands,” he mentioned. With the Free to Select program, he mentioned, “we got down to change life trajectories that might in any other case have been inevitable.”

“There are kids being taught to shoot at eight years outdated. There are kids dealing crack at eight years outdated,” mentioned Chiara Colosimo, head of the Italian parliament’s anti-mafia fee.

Di Bella mentioned he’d been contacted by some moms asking for assist in saving their kids from mob indoctrination. He mentioned he’d even acquired letters from a number of mafia bosses thanking him for giving their kids an opportunity at a special life.

However the scheme has additionally drawn criticism, with some arguing that even mobsters have the best to be fathers.

A crackdown, and Italy’s evolving mafia panorama

Italy has waged a concerted legislation enforcement crackdown on organized crime in recent times, and it has led not solely to a whole lot of arrests and prosecutions, however a shift in the complete mafia panorama.

In September, Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted mastermind of a number of the most heinous murders carried out by Cosa Nostra and regarded Italy’s No. 1 fugitive, died in a jail hospital just some months after being captured. He’d spent many years on the run.

An extended-ignored crime syndicate primarily based in southern Italy’s Puglia area, often called the Fourth Mafia, has emerged in recent times because the nation’s most violent mafia.

One of many leaders of the group, primarily based within the city of Foggia, escaped from a most safety jail in 2023 by tying mattress sheets collectively, however was captured in France in February.

The clans primarily based in and round Foggia — although much less refined than the ‘Ndrangheta, the Camorra or the Cosa Nostra crime syndicates — are mentioned to depend on extortion, bombings and threats to extort residents.