5 January 2008

The pardon, as seen by the Espresso

The Espresso magazine on display at the newsvendors has dedicated its front page and its main article, written by Riccardo Bocca, to the “Odissea Carcere” inquest. Anyone reading this article after returning to Italy after a few years away, and thus not fully aware of what has transpired in his/her absence, would certainly get a wrong impression of what has occurred.
My party has done everything in its power, certainly more so than any other party, to prevent the law on pardons from being approved. I have proclaimed its futility in terms of resolving the problem of prison overcrowding, which has in fact, in little more than a year, returned to its pre-pardon levels.
I said, and wrote, at the time that this law would only serve to keep corrupt officials and partisan smart alecs out of jail, rather than to release thousands of common or garden delinquents, most of whom, immediately after their release, went straight back to a life of crime (70% according to the Espresso). I also said that the pardon was sending a clear signal to anyone wishing to come and commit crimes in our Country. Those citizens who have become victims of crime and the policemen, and judges that have worked tirelessly to enforce the law, have paid for the price of the pardon. The only ones to enjoy the benefits have been the political parties, both on the right wing and the left wing, which have avoided seeing their supporters incarcerated.


The Espresso article, after having illustrated the explosion in the numbers of people incarcerated, defines the pardon as: “The synthesis of a failed provision, which is an indictment against those that failed to vote for it (like the An and the Lega)”. The “Italia dei Valori” party is not mentioned, nor am I mentioned personally. I am fully expecting that, at some future stage, it will be written that I am the one that proposed the pardon and that Mastella was the one that opposed it.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information