La condizione liminale rivisitata: una proposta di approccio generativo al carcere

Abstract

The situation of prisons and prisoners in Italy is one of the most serious and urgent unsolved issues affecting the country: structural problems and, above all, the high suicide rate among prisoners signal a difficulty in achieving a real paradigm shift from a culture of prison oriented predominantly toward discipline, correction, and isolation to a culture that sees prison instead as a device for reeducation, social re-inclusion, redemption, and rebirth. The objective of the article is to outline a proposal for a “generative” approach to prison that helps to highlight, from a sociological perspective, the distinctive elements and potential benefits of a different way of understanding the condition of prisoners and the relationship between them and society, relaunching a discussion of the culture of prison and, at the same time, facilitating the identification of those characteristics and processes that can support the launching of new initiatives in this direction. This objective is pursued in two ways: first, by building from the existing literature a theoretical framework that interprets the “liminality” of prisoners not as a “waste” but as a resource which, if recognized and valued, can contribute to initiating processes of transformation, innovation and (human and) social regeneration. These processes include the reeducation, social re-inclusion, human empowerment, and flourishing of prisoners, which should be among the main goals of the prison institution; at the same time, they also involve and benefit others outside the prison and society as a whole. Secondly, the objective is pursued by referring to a paradigmatic and, at the same time, unique experience active in the Milan-Opera prison: that of the lutherie and carpentry workshop linked to the Orchestra del Mare initiative and the Metamorphosis project.