Correctional education: som ewhere between preventive and repressiverepressive

Don Bosco might have had an understanding o f the antithesis between prevention and repression and also o f the need that they be combined in an institution destined to provide correctional education, when he was in touch with the Generala, a prison for minors. Count Carlo Ilarione Petitti o f Roreto had vigorously fought to have the young m en detained there separated from the adults. He had done this in a w ork already

80 A. Rosmini-Serbati, Epistolario, voi 5 618-619.

81 Ibid., 619-621.

82 “L ’uomo dal “grande cu ore” a ll’uomo che “pensa in grande"', appears to be the inspiration behind a wise comment by R. Lanfranchi, “Rosmini-Don Bosco: istanze pedagogico- educative di un rapporto”, in {{Rivista di scienze d e ll‘Educazione»35 (1997): 277-293

cited: D ella condizlone attuale delle carceri e del m ezzi p e r m igliorarla. This suggestion began to find fulfilm ent with R. Patenti when Charles A lbert gave his approval, on February 9,1839. According to the royal brief ofApril 12,1845, modified activities in the prisons had their beginning.

The Brothers o f the C ongregation o f St Peter in Chains, from M arseille, a Congregation founded by Canon Charles Fissiaux (1806-1867) for the apostolate among the ju venile offenders, w ere called upon to act as educators at the Generala. The chaplain o f the Generala was a diocesan priest mostly in charge o f the religious and moral education o f the detainees.83

Don Bosco had definite contacts with the Generala, even though not all o f them can be documented, as will be clearly indicated in Chapter 10 o f this book. The Generala hosted young men condem ned to correctional punishm ent because they had com m itted some thoughtless crim e and also young men detained because they needed fatherly correction.84 The correctional m ethod used with them was to get them to w ork together and in silence and at nightthey were segregated into cells. The system o f correctional education called for the blending o f different ways o f dealing with the detainees: preventive, coercive and corrective. This was dem onstrated not only in the practical activity o f the Brothers, but also in theory form ulated by their founder who was occasionally there with the local director.

Petitti o f Roreto had figured this out ahead o f tim e when he wrote o f prisons for young rascals both “for detainees sent to prison at the request o f their parents to be paternally corrected” and for “young people unw illing to work and vagabonds arrested by the police and condemned to prison by penal courts” . “The basic general principle”, Petitti wrote, “ is to use a new, firm, severe educational method but with a touch o f fatherly indulgence, especially for those detained at the request o f their parents and needing correction. The educational m ethod to be used on these young people should be more civil. The others instead need a more severe approach and they should also be directed tow ards learning a trade.”85

The ideas inspiring this approach can be draw n from the Rapport given by Fissiaux at the end o f the first and second years o f activity at the Generala. Especially

83 On the Generala, cf. A. Lonni, “11 penitenziario industriale-agricolo della ‘Generala’.

Trattamento del minor deviante nel Piemonte preunitario”, in Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino 82 (1984) 391-424; R. Audisio, La ‘G enerala'di Torino, Esposte, discoli, minori corrigendi (1845-1850).Santena, Fondazione Camillo Cavour 1987,236 pages; C. Felloni and R. Audisio. Igiovani discoli, in Torino e Don Bosco,ed. Giuseppe Bracco, voi 1 Saggi. (Turin, City Archives, 1989)99-119.

u S o c ie tà R eale p e r p a tro c in io d ei g io v a n i lib e r a ti d a lla C asa d ’edu ca zio n e correzionale.(Turin, Boscco 1847). Don Bosco was amongst the first members o f the society:

cf. R. Audisio, L 'Generala 'di Torino, 2 10 .

85 C. 1. Pettiti di Roreto, Della condizione,in Opere Scelte,voi 1, 546.

relevant are those in the report on the first year o f activity. “The house o f correctional education” in regard to the young delinquents has the task o f preparing them for a better future, saving them from shipw reck, punishing them , for sure, but also and above all correcting them ”.86

The beginnings were very difficult and, as the reporter confesses “against our will we had to use m axim um severity and tem porarily relinquish gentle approaches w hich were then interpreted as w eakness.. But in the end we w ere able to use with our youngsters the correctional educational method followed by our Society in other correctional houses entrusted to our care” .87

A fter offering an idea o f the system adopted by the Society o f St Peter in C hains, Fissiaux dw ells on the topic o f ‘d iscip lin e’ with all its connotation o f the repressive system. “The discipline o f the establishm ent is severe and must be so. It is necessary that everything should rem ind the detainees that the place they are in is a place o f punishm ent and correction. Starting from this principle, we let no fault go unpunished. A t the same time, no virtuous act is left unrew arded”.88 However, also the typical positive educative elements peculiar to the Preventive System are highlighted:

imitation, work, school, music, religious and moral potential.89

There are abundant tones o f m oderation and understanding in reference to youthful fragility. The young m en to be corrected are referred to as “poor kids, more unfortunate than guilty. As hum an beings w e are accustom ed to thinking o f them as incorrigible criminals. We have unjust prejudices about them and undeserved contempt for them as “kids who have becom e victim s o f the fragility o f their age, and the m isfortune o f their birth” .90

In the second Rapport on the second year o f activity we can spot the emergence o f som e elem ents which show how close the repressive system is to the Preventive System. The director, in fact, intends to show that “Our Society has already obtained, at least partially, the good results you have the right to expect from its zeal and dedication by giving true correctional education to those boys who need to be corrected but with gentleness rather than punishing them or through being harsh”. He also insists on the

86 Rapport sur les premiers résultats obtenus dans la Maison d'éducation correctionnelle pour les jeunes détenus du Royaume de Sarda igne présenté à la réunion qui eut lieu le 7 juin 1846 pour la distribution des prix par monsieur l ’abbé Fissiaux., (Turin, Imprimiere Royale 1846)6-7.

87 Ibid., 10,13-14.

88 Ibid., 21. In a ‘Rendiconto’ (report) from 1854 (the Brothers o f the Congregation o f St Peter in Chains were licensed the year before), given to the chapalin Fr Giuseppe Giuliano, the

“Establishment” is presented as an “Institute for punishing and improving them at the same time” (Calendario generale del Regno pel 1855, annoXXXII), (Turin, Stamperia dell’Unione Tipografica-Editrice 1855): 137

89 Ch. Fixxiaux, Rapport, 14-21,27-30.

90 Ibid., 31.

fact that the m ajority o f the detainees are more unfortunate than guilty and that they have reacted positively to the educational system in use.91