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Observatory

Building on the University’s commitment – since 2015 – in supporting the study paths of people deprived of their liberty, under the Convention signed between the University and PRAP-Lombardia, an Observatory of the University of Milan on the right to study in prison, the first of its kind in Italy, was established in October 2022, which performs a triple function:

Research: through activities to measure the impact of educational interventions in prison, in terms of the quality of prison life, the protection and/or restoration of rights, the extension of opportunities for social reintegration and consequently the contribution to the constitutional and statutory purpose of punishment; but also broader look at the link between schooling and imprisonment.

Representation of UNIMI restricted students and their active involvement in the reflections inherent in the different locations where the State University Prison Pole is active (listening to their voices about problems, proposals, needs related to the specific detention institutions, the different circuits they belong to, the organization of the various sections, etc.).

Periodic monitoring through the collection and translation of data about university study paths in criminal execution (internal and external) with specific reference to restricted students enrolled at Statale.

Over the past two years, the Observatory has met periodically with sessions inside prisons and at universities, as required by regulation, and has already brought about some important concrete results, thanks in part to the involvement of the institutional figures involved. In particular, to be noticed:

The decision of the Regional Council, at the proposal of the Observatory, to relieve all university students detained in Lombardy from paying the 140-euro regional fee for the right to study;
The stipulation of a free loan agreement for the use of computers and printers between the University and the Opera Detention Home, to be used by State University students confined at that institution.

Regulation