Killer allowed, the president of the Court of Appeal: 'Very serious if he met people outside the family. The law imposes re-education on us'

"The event was meant to remain private and was made public by an inappropriate and unintelligent choice, but it is very serious if the young man also met non-relatives". This was stated by Giuseppe de Carolis di Prossedi, president of the Court of Appeal of Naples, interviewed by Radio Crc on the case of the photos of the party for the young man's 18th birthday convicted in the first instance for the murder of the security guard Francesco Della Corte. “The request of the prison director and the authorization of the judge – explained de Carolis di Prossedi – only envisaged a meeting with the family for 4 hours accompanied by an escort in a rectory made available by the priest, it should have been limited to this”. Some photos of the party were then shared on Facebook by a family member: “The social element is certainly very disturbing – added the president of the Court of Appeal of Naples – because it makes any private event public. I can imagine the discomfort that the victims of the crime felt seeing a scene like that. Social media makes everything more complicated, even if in this case, as far as I understand, the photos were not posted by the defendant but by a cousin who made an inappropriate, unintelligent choice that was also not in the interest of the young man. She emphasized a situation that should have been strictly private and that thus took on all other aspects”. The president then explained further: “I will not enter into the merits of the provision but I can contribute to clarifying the matter. When it comes to minors, a resocialization path is provided: it is clear that, in the face of very serious crimes, the tendency of public opinion would be to lock up the accused and throw away the key, but the principles of the system provide that the punishment always has a re-educational purpose and in particular when they are minors the burden on the prison is even more significant. The minor is not serving a sentence but is still in pre-trial detention and the prison director is required to establish a resocialization and rehabilitation program to at least attempt a re-educational path, to bring the minor closer to paths of legality and healthy socialization. Using the prison psychologists and its staff, he identifies a different path for each individual inmate”. The measure that the 18-year-old benefited from, underlined de Carolis of Prossedi, “is not a reward permit but is part of a resocialization process that went through several steps: first the approach to the world of work with the ceramics school, then to the world of sport that we know how important it is for a young person, we know how many young people have been saved from the streets thanks to gyms. The opportunity of prison is to try to bring them back to a healthy path of socialization, then whether we succeed or not is a gamble, but our system requires us to try”.