The course will be devoted to the sociology of deviance, the theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system and the operation of alternative measures. The second part of the teaching will be devoted to the relationship between labour and prinson and to the access of the prisioners to the rights of free workes.
The students attending the cours will be asked to prepare an appeal on this topic to the sourveillance judge or to the European Court of Human Rights.
Students attending classes will be evaluated on the basis of their active participation in the course and seminar and theoretical activities, and of the drafted measure. The final exam will consist in a discussion with the teacher about the topics treated in the initial stage, the theoretical report and the drafted measure.
Non-attending students will be required to study the following texts:
E. SANTORO, Carcere e società liberale, II edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2004 (pp. 372).
G. CAPUTO, Carcere senza fabbrica: Povertà, lavoro forzato e welfare, Quaderni dell'Altro diritto, Pisa, Pacini, 2020.
Learning Objectives
Understanding
Knowledge about the sociology of deviance, theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system, alternative measures, and the relationship among punishment, work and social reintegration.
Skills: Ability to analyze the relationship between law and social reality and the one between law and rhetoric in the criminal field. The focus will be in particular the social impact of criminal rules and the ways of managing social problems and of the ones about the government of the prison. Ability to working with others and to discussing issues associated with the protection of prisoners' rights. Ability to drafting an appeal to the surveillance judge or (in English or French) to the European Court of Human Rights.
Competences: Approach to law as a ‘social question’. Aptitude to historicize the offence-punishment link, to connect the problems of the political-social order with the theories of deviance and punishment, to understand the development of the inrplay among law, rethorich and practice about riabiitation. Ability to assess the framework of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on prisoners' social and labour rights.
Prerequisites
Students must have passed the exams of General Constitutional Law, Private Law I. It is recommended to have passed the exams of Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
Teaching Methods
Lectures: 30 hours
Workshops on the protection of labour and social rights of prisoners offered by Surveillance judges and European Court of Human Rights: 10 hours
Type of Assessment
Intermediate tests: students must expose the first paper at mid-term and discuss other students’ papers in seminars.
Final exam: for attending students, it will consist in a discussion of the two written papers. The evaluation will be based on the quality of the written paper, on the oral presentation and on the participation to the discussion of the papers of the other students.
For non-attending students, it will be about the textbooks.
Course program
The course is divided into three parts.
In the first part the different legal-sociological theories about the functions of the punishing system will be introduced, with particular reference to the different kinds of deviance and penitentiary institutions.
There will follow a seminar part involving the reading of texts, the drafting of papers and their collective discussion. Students can choose to study some topics more in depth, including: the different interpretations of the evolution of punishing systems; social control; the psychological and anthropological foundations of punishment; the relationship between morality and criminal law; the opposition between the classical school and the positive school (Lombroso and Ferri); retribution, due process and deterrence theories; the opposition between punishment and offender’s treatment; abolitionist theories; the sociology of prison life; ‘total institutions’; the process of degradation of defendants and convicts; the representation of deviance in the media; the transition from the welfare state to the ‘penal state’; theories of juvenile deviance; Durkheim’s sociology of punishment: anomie; the Chicago school; the labelling theory; critical criminology and the new criminological realism.
The last part of the teaching will be devoted to the analysis of the rhetoric on the role of work in the riabilitation of prisoners and on how it has been translated in norms and practice. A the end of this last part, the students will be asked to prepare an appeal to the surveillance judge or ECHR strating from real cases of violations of prisoners' social and labour rights.
In order to attend seminars, a good knowledge of English is strongly recommended.