SERA Preventing radicalisation in prisons -

P a g e | 17 ERASMUS+ N° 580247-EPP-1-2016-1-FR-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN in 2012-2013 in prisons with a high number of non-EU prisoners, and focused on the needs of Muslim prisoners, radicalism and proselytization. The most recent course is of the duration of 21 hours spread out over 3 days and consists of sessions focusing on the cultural and religious aspects of Islam ; Islamic religious practice ; international terrorism; ideological background and its diffusion; proselytization and radicalisation; penitentiary management of international terrorists; and operational techniques. The course was replicated 46 times and over 1300 penitentiary police officers were trained (Ministero della Giustizia, n.d.). In 2017, The Ministry of the Interior agreed to fund courses of 48 hours for Imams and other spiritual leaders in sociology, Italian constitution, freedom of religion and speech, as well as the rights and duties inherent in democratic societies (Redazione Ansa, 2017). In addition, the Regional Board for Penitentiary Administration in Lombardy and Caritas conducted a course for 150 penitentiary police officers on religious pluralism in Italian prisons, in order to provide staff with further insight into different cultures (Dazzi, 2016). In Torino and Bologna, prevention initiatives targeted at inmates were enacted at the local level. In Bologna, in 2014, 20 sessions on the Constitution and its core values were conducted with Muslim inmates held in the prison of Dozza. The sessions were led by a monk and a cultural mediator, volunteers for a local NGO (Redattore Sociale, 2014). In 2016, a local project in Torino focused on the provision of spiritual assistance to juvenile Muslim prisoners through collaboration between prison and local Islamic associations. The aim was that of integrating prisoners, proving that there is no hierarchy of faiths and that Islamic communities must be involved in deradicalisation efforts (Rossi, 2017).