Pregnant prisoners, Pd-Lega clash. «Underturned law for children’s rights»- Corriere.it

It is a clash between the majority and the opposition on the pregnant women that they are inmates in prison or charged with crimes requiring incarceration. The Pd had presented a bill with the intention of improving the conditions of detention of pregnant women or women with small children. But the text was completely overwhelmed by the majority, which presented modification proposals which, in fact, provide that even if expecting a child, those who are repeat offenders, if arrested, remain in prison. The Dems consequently withdrew their bill, making it void, to prevent it from being approved with a completely different meaning from the one that had generated it. In response, the center-right decided to resubmit it, taking into account the changes that had been presented.

League MPs Jacopo Morrone and Ingrid Bisa, both members of the Justice Commission in the Chamber, “in order to avoid this regulatory nonsense, they presented a bill to amend article 146 of the Criminal Code on the matter of mandatory postponement of the execution of the sentence”. «The article in question – comment the parliamentarians – provides for the deferment of the sentence for pregnant women, for mothers with a child under one year of age, for those suffering from AIDS or other serious illnesses. A principle that can be shared in theory but which in fact clashes with a very different reality, one of serious social harm and relevant in terms of safety. In fact, the presence of professional pickpockets who move undisturbed in railway stations, subways and public transport lines is now common, stealing personal goods, wallets, money and documents from the targeted passengers. Although known to the police and often caught in the act of committing a crime, these professional thieves immediately find themselves free because they are pregnant or because they are mothers of small children, ready to resume their activities. It is evident that this phenomenon is creating more and more social alarm and fear, as confirmed by various journalistic investigations. Hence the need to prevent pregnancy from becoming an easy way out for committing crimes without being penalized».

“Our text had already been voted on by a branch of Parliament in the previous legislature – explains the Democratic Party Alexander Zan —. We had reintroduced it to improve the conditions of inmate mothers, but the majority transformed it by inserting rules that actually make things worse by even allowing pregnant women or women with children less than one year of age to go to prison. So it no longer makes sense, so let’s withdraw the signatures ». It echoes him Jacopo Morrone, group leader of the League in the Justice Commission in Montecitorio: “We will re-present the text which also contains our proposals which had been approved and which provide that there are no more excuses for pregnant women: they too, if they go back to committing crimes, will end up in prison” . Concept reiterated by the undersecretary Andrea Ostellari: «Our request, supported by the entire centre-right, for a reform of article 146 of the penal code on the subject of pickpockets and pregnant thieves was accepted in the Justice Commission. Finally we change and pregnancy will not be an excuse: those who commit crimes will be sanctioned, while respecting the rights of all, including the unborn child”. Matthew Salvini intervened in the debate with a tweet in which he accused the Democratic Party of wanting to free “Roma pickpockets who use children and pregnancy to avoid prison and continue to commit crimes”.

But all the centre-left, which instead aimed at further protection for the children of the prisoners, rose up with comments that speak of an “inhuman choice light years away from the cardinal principles on which a rule of law is based” (MalpezziPd), of a «right that rages against children» (BoldriniPd), of «immoral behavior of the majority» (calendar, Action). “Our pdl had as its objective `no more children in prisons,” he explains Federico Gianassi, dem group leader in the Justice commission, «and had been urgently incardinated because it was approved in the last legislature in a branch of Parliament. After back and forth, with Forza Italia initially declaring itself in favour, and several postponements, yesterday the majority approved some amendments that distort the nature of our proposal and in particular an amendment signed by Varchi on the basis of which, in case of recidivism, pregnant women with children up to one year can go to prison. It is a more restrictive measure than the current legislation, which instead provides for the deferment of the sentence for these cases”.

On the subject we note the `distinction´ of the blue vice president of the Chamber, Giorgio Mule’. “Children are born in the manger to keep to the Gospel, but certainly they are not born in prison: they are born in hospital”, he says. «Children cannot be born and grow up in prison, there can be and already are alternative solutions to prison, I am thinking of family homes, that is, places controlled by the prison police which do not have bars but still guarantee safety for the community. Children shouldn’t get to know the world by looking at it from behind the grates, but it is objective that the problem exists and that the solution must be found. But safety and children’s rights can go hand in hand. “This government goes from ‘law and order’ to ‘inhumanity’ and incivility’. They have also put their seal on this inhumane text of mere propaganda and exploitation. If this is the future of the country, we will oppose it with all our strength”, guarantees the parent company dem in the Chamber Deborah Serracchiani.