newspapers can be opportunities
for a big change
I give you good news today all of you
you are protagonists
the protagonists of an opportunity to
social growth
how do you try to think of the
daily reality closer to you
objects to the actions that you complete all
you get up you get ready
put your things in a bag is
exit to go to work
now think of a daily reality to you
very far
the prison precisely if I ask you to
think about prison what you come in
mind
walls gates noises keys pain
anger people already because in prison yes
they’re people, so how are they?
report our daily actions
the objects we use every day e
people in prison
the relationship comes from the fact that in
prison some people through the
work produce objects for ours
everyday use and I take care of this
I have not worked in prison for 15 years
Penitentiary police officer are not
a public official but I am the
president of a social cooperative e
I chose to work in prison
I chose it because I wanted to contribute to
make the principle of
re-education of the sentence that already
prescribed by our constitution
I chose it because I believe that prison
can not and should not be just one
place of exclusion of imprisonment of
range punishment work in prison is
difficult us with the cooperative the
we had to invent it
it was 1995 in venice there are two
prisons at the women’s prison at the
giudecca
we started inventing the job
starting from the context a former convent
with a beautiful abandoned garden
it took work for many years
but that garden today is a vegetable garden
biological certificate of which women
inmates take care and cultivate
medicinal herbs near the vegetable garden
there was a building that too
abandoned and we set them up a
modern cosmetic laboratory for
to commute
medicinal herbs in products of
beauty
work is the tool that we
we provide people in
prison of men and women who
they want to change through work
it gives an opportunity to get back in
game to see their life in
another perspective to experiment
different relationships to discover interests
new to have an income but a
clean income to be proud of and
through this income a new one
dignity
that’s when a bag made in
prison from a simple container object
becomes a symbol a symbol of
change and a messenger of stories
here is a cosmetic symbol of care
of inner care even before that of
the outer one
I call these ambassadors objects
because they are ambassadors of work but
even more are ambassadors of that
path of growth and change
that the people who reproduce are
crossing in the common sense we tend
to think that prison is something
that does not concern us is another one with us
the cooperative we wanted instead
open a communication channel between
the inside and the outside between the world
recluse the free world and to do it
collaborations with our city
they have always been fundamental
there are so many people who have
the detainees cooperated
professional volunteers collaborators
who made theirs available
know they donated their ideas to make
grow our project and renew it
over time they have been more than twenty years
I’ll tell you the last detail now
collaboration we have had the year
last
we met mark bradford mark
bradford is an artist an artist
contemporary among the most important al
world was in venice to represent
the United States at the biennial
international art but he wanted
have an impact on the city that went
beyond the closed circuit of the world
of art and so sought out in the
fabric of our city and has
met our project is me
liked it so much that it wanted
collaborate and wanted to be part of it
he himself started one
collaboration called prof.sse
collective pros the collective starts from
principle of listening listening to needs
of the people in prison need
work
sure but also need to be seen
need to be taken in
consideration and on the principle of
listening build an offer offer of
opportunities but the principles must then be made
concrete and from the concreteness we are
parties we have opened a point together
sale of products made in prison in
historic center in venice a place where i
inmates are no longer just producers
have hidden themselves the
representatives of their witnesses
work and find there too
opportunities to meet and exchange with
the free world is therefore the good one
news
now it is in your hands to be agents
of change can be as simple as
become aware consumers e
choose virtuous circuits to be
agents of change can mean
turn your gaze where nobody
look and bring their own ideas bring
their passions bring their own
work
I hope that art, music, work
and everyone’s passions can
feed the many projects that like the
ours in everything
Italy make people live in
prison differently to get them out
different
think that for those in prison do for
re-education courses
the rate of recidivism is lowered from 70
percent up to 20 percent on one
detained population of more than 50,000
people means dozens and dozens
hundreds of people who leave the
prison will not return to crime
think thank you
[Applause]
”
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