Milan, 20 July 2023.
Prisoners are being trained for employment in railway stations and offices. Starting from next September, the first five people hired by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and Trenitalia, leaders of the FS Italiane Group’s Infrastructure and Passenger Business Units respectively, are being released from the Casa di Reclusione di Milano Opera. They will work under fixed-term contracts with a six-month duration. This is the first agreement implementing that envisaged in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Justice and the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, signed on 22 July last year.
The latest agreement was signed today by Silvio Di Gregorio – Director of the Casa di Reclusione di Milano Opera prison, and Massimo Bruno – Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of the FS Italiane Group, coming one year after signing the Protocol “Mi Riscatto per il Futuro”, which commits the parties to promoting work activities in favour of the inmate population, in order to foster the reintegration of people deprived of their liberty, by identifying training, rehabilitation and social reintegration opportunities.
The candidates were selected from within the prison population on the basis of legal requirements and under the supervision of corrections officials. Together with representatives of the Human Resources of the FS Group companies, the first five inmates were then named. Having passed the medical examination and training course, the new hires will work in established positions – three will work for Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, in the roles of Sala Blu attendant offering assistance services to travellers with reduced mobility, attendant supporting the station contact person and attendant supporting the training staff of the vocational school, whilst the two others will work for Trenitalia, in roles with the installation technical secretariat.
“I would like to thank Ferrovie dello Stato for this very significant collaboration, which today has taken the form of this initial implementation agreement and which, I hope, will be the harbinger of many other initiatives,” said Head of the Department of Prison Administration, Giovanni Russo, who emphasised, “The work activities performed by prisoners significantly contributes to lowering recidivism rates and, consequently, to raising the level of public safety. Moreover, it constitutes one of the cornerstones of prison treatment aimed at the social reintegration of inmates, in implementation of the institutional mandate of the Prison Administration.”
“The agreement signed today confirms the FS Group’s commitment to supporting socially inclusive initiatives to promote the vocational training of people in marginalised conditions and to contribute to the reintegration of prisoners into the civil and social community,” said Massimo Bruno, FS Group’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. “We thank the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Prison Administration for collaborating on this agreement, which is fully in line with the initiatives promoted by the Group to network and create a widespread culture of responsibility across all levels. Indeed, our mission is to ‘move’ the country by ensuring the free movement of people, freight and ideas, whilst supporting the necessary and fundamental changes for development of the community and the national system.”
In mid-September, at a special event, the Department of Prison Administration and Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane will take stock of the first results of the agreement and other initiatives for cooperation.