Prisoners' Ombudsman visits the Airola juvenile prison: "Listen to teenagers, or the risk increases."

The Campania region's Guarantor for Persons Deprived of Personal Liberty, Samuele Ciambriello, chose the Airola juvenile prison to issue a warning that concerns not only the facility, but the entire child protection system. In the Benevento prison, which houses 24 youths, only two of whom are engaged in outside work and with just four educators on duty, he found a context marked by profound fragility. During the visit, he was joined by the new director, Giulia Magliulo, and Commander Antonio Sgambati.

In a statement released after the meeting, Ciambriello outlined critical issues that risk becoming an emergency. Renovation work on the facility, begun some time ago but still in the preliminary stages, will render the field, gym, and church unusable, while the cafeteria will need to be split. Over the coming months, eighteen young people will remain concentrated in a single unit. This is a delicate prospect, especially given the personal circumstances of the young people he met: "I encountered stories of precarious life, young people from broken families, without an education system, young people who had never participated in any local educational network."

In his conversation with the inmates, which took place after the screening of a short film about adolescents, Ciambriello perceived an often-ignored educational need: "Adolescence is a time of developing identities; if the need for listening, education, and guidance is ignored, the risk of dramatic choices increases. We need a jolt, we need projects that teach concrete alternatives to 'do-it-yourself' justice." He described young people who live "on instinct and in the moment," where reason gives way to impulse, even when it translates into violence: "They want everything now."

The Guarantor also drew attention to the national situation, which he described as alarming: "The numbers of minors at risk, of mistreatment, of sexual abuse, of disappearances, of care provided by social services, are there for all to see. The situation is extremely critical, lacking a national plan for children, and political action to prevent untreated hardship from turning into deviance and then petty crime. A shake-up is needed."