Open doors: Prison

For Uisp, physical activity for prisoners is a right and a tool for socialization and recovery.

The widespread experience of Uisp within Italian prisons dates back to about forty years ago, when numerous courses and sports activities for prisoners began in various cities, with the entry into the prison of technicians and sports educators from Uisp Committees. At the same time, the first sports events began with the participation of inmates, prison staff and external athletes.

The aim, in addition to offering sports activities within the treatment area as a recreational and educational tool, as a form of socialization and a tool for psychophysical well-being and relationships, has always been (bringing the right to sport into a difficult environment such as that of imprisonment) to connect the reality of the prison with the outside, promoting relationships also with the social composition of cities.

The first national and formal relations between Uisp and the General Directorate of Prevention and Penal Institutes date back to September 18, 1990, thanks to an official letter that the then Uisp president Gianmario Missaglia sent to Dr. Nicolò Amato, general director. After some experiments, in 1990 “Vivicittà-Porte aperte” got underway: the national Uisp event, the race messenger of peace and liveability in Italy and in the world, made its debut inside the prison walls. It started in eight cities, and since then the experience has never stopped.

In all prisons and juvenile correctional facility, Uisp intervenes with sports and physical activities both traditional and innovative, making available the multiple skills of its operators, careful to put the person at the centre of the activity rather than the technical aspect The activities of the Uisp territorial Committees are subject to qualitative and quantitative monitoring by the Institutions, the Directorates, the educators and the Prap (Prison Administration Superintendents), in order to always offer actions corresponding to the needs and develop actions in continuity and sustainable over the years.

Another quality element common to all interventions is the direct involvement of the Penitentiary Police in the activities, as well as the continuous exchange with external athletes, the participation of prisoners in external sporting initiatives and events and the involvement of family members in the activities: sport for all in prison is the dynamic center of a system of otherwise difficult relationships.

Many of the actions are developed independently by Uisp local committees, others are included in national projects (such as the project “The third Half”, in juvenile detention institutes), others are local initiatives as part of a widespread national planning (such as “Vivicittà Open Doors”), so that all actions can meet local needs and at the same time to compose a coherent system and a framework of national planning.