SERA Preventing radicalisation in prisons -

P a g e | 16 ERASMUS+ N° 580247-EPP-1-2016-1-FR-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN ITALY In a recent report drafted by the Interim Commission on the study of radicalisation and jihadist extremism (2017) experts assessed the nature and extent of radicalisation in Italy. Despite emphasising that by comparison with other Central and Northern European Member States, Italy’s terror threat and risks of violent radicalisation are allegedly lower, they argued that radicalisation is occurring behind the scenes, particularly online and in prison. The report contended that Italy is lagging behind other EU countries in the prevention of radicalisation, and should thus develop a prevention strategy, comprehensive of soft measures for individuals showing warning signs of radicalisation and ‘harder’ measures for foreign fighters returning from conflict zones (Commissione di studio su fenomeno della radicalizzazione e dell’ estremismo jihadista, 2017). Bill proposal C.3558 Dambruoso, presented to Parliament in January 2016, is an attempt to address this gap in Italian legislation and policy. The main aim of the bill is to prevent radicalisation and extremism and ensure the social and cultural reintegration of radicalised individuals. Hence, it provides for intercultural training for the police, armed forces, prison staff, teachers, social workers and healthcare providers, and for educational programmes to counter radicalisation among inmates. Moreover, the bill envisages penalties of 5 to 8 years’ imprisonment for foreign fighters, and for whoever organises and funds travel with terrorist intent ; as well as introduces binding provisions outlining online platforms’ duties to remove extremist content from the net (Camera dei Deputati, 2017). In addition, the new law mandates the creation of CRAD (National Centre on Radicalisation) to coordinate all prevention efforts in matter of radicalisation, and the establishment of the ‘Regional Coordination Centres for Radicalisation’ (Centri di coordinamento regionali sulla radicalizzazione), that will collaborate with CRAD at the local level. At the national level, a Parliamentary Committee will be responsible for monitoring radicalisation phenomena all over Italy (Camera dei Deputati, 2017). The law was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and was subsequently passed to the Senate in July 2017. PRISONS Several trainings for prison staff, aimed at raising awareness of radicalisation and extremist violence, have been conducted in a number of Italian prisons prison in the past few years. The first training course was conducted in 2010 in four prisons holding offenders convicted with terrorism charges. The training was replicated six times and saw the participation of 156 penitentiary police officers and 8 management & administrative staff. The second course ran