Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY
1) Vocational and Employment Programs
Majority of the inmates attend or participate in programs under the category of
vocational and employment, which include Fire Fighting course, Work at Height course, Work Safety course (all prisoners), the social project “Frescobaldi for Gorgona”, the RECTO VERSO project, the Sea Rescue Dog Training course, and the Theatre course. These projects all have a psychosocial component because they also aim to build cognitive abilities and replace distorted cognitions (self-justifying thinking, blame-shifting, dominion patterns) with non-criminal thinking patterns.
The social project of Frescobaldi
“In a glass of Gorgona 2019 there is the commitment of many people. There are feelings, desires, and even a desire for freedom. This wine was made to give inmates a second chance”.
- Marquis Frescobaldi -
The project aims to professionalize inmates in the field of viticulture. From the collaboration between the famous Tuscan winemakers Frescobaldi and the penal colony of Gorgona, a unique wine is produced by the prisoners of the island. Since 2011, in a small vineyard located in an amphitheatre-shaped area that overlooks the sea, the project aims to provide inmates with practical experience in the areas of grape cultivation and winemaking by working closely with Frescobaldi agronomists and oenologists. Today the vineyard has an extension of two hectares, since a second hectare cultivated in 2015 was added to the initial hectare.
The project employs 10 percent of the inmates. Only three units work in the cellar, and these inmates are used in rotation (from January to December) so that the greatest possible number of prisoners can be included in the project.
Figure 7
Grape harvest in the island
Cozzella, E. (2021, September 10). Prisoners work in the vineyards [Photograph].
https://www.repubblica.it/il-
gusto/2021/09/10/news/gorgona_2020_la_splendida_annata_dell_isola-penitenziario-317263752
The wine called Gorgona Rosso was ‘birthed’ from the 2015 harvest, from some rows of Sangiovese and Vermentino Nero, grown in organic farming and then aged in terracotta pots. The Gorgona Rosso label is dedicated to hope and the desire for rehabilitation: with the hope that the important viticulture experiences acquired by the prisoners can help them write a new page when they return to society.
Gorgona’s front label aspires to be a “limited edition” newsletter that communicates a different aspect of the island, each vintage telling the story of a different aspect of this unique place. Stepping onto Gorgona means immediately discovering an utterly distinctive biodiversity with a dense Mediterranean scrub and an uncontaminated sea. But fortifications stud the landscape as well, testimony to past civilisations, and a small church that Cistercian monks built in the 18th century and
dedicated to San Gorgonio.
The Gorgona 2020 label tells us about the fortress and various towers on the island. On the steep, craggy western coast, 200 metres above the sea, rises the Old Tower (Torre Vecchia), a massive Pisan fortress, or stronghold, sheathed in local stone, and built between during the 11th and 13th centuries. Now in ruins, it once guarded the stretch of the Mediterranean facing Corsica and protected the monks from frequent pirate attacks. On the opposite side of the island, facing mainland Italy, lies Cala dello Scalo, a fishing port dominated by the New Tower (Torre Nuova), a fort erected by the Medici in the 17th century to complete the island’s defensive perimeter.
Finally, the island also boasts of two towers built of reddish stone constructed in the late 19th century to track activities on the mainland. Rising near the edge of the pine wood, near the vineyards, is the Clock Tower (Torre dell’Orologio), named after the sundial, and, looking towards Cala Scirocco, is Garibaldi Tower (Torre Garibaldi). In addition to wine, the inmates of Gorgona also produce excellent olive oil.
The RECTO VERSO project
The main objective of the RECTO VERSO Project is to increase the percentage of employment in prisons, creating a driving force for a stable model of agriculture 4.0, generator of well-being, and aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
This project of the organic farm Santissima Annunziata of Beatrice Massaza has two main objectives linked to agricultural productivity and to the educational needs of prisons. The first is to create an olive growing model for the well-being of environmentally conscious workers, producers, and consumers. The second is to employ and educate inmates, who in turn, will form other categories, starting from the
detention house located on the island of Gorgona, where a unique variety of olives is produced and an oil mill is already present.
The Project has two phases. RECTO, the first phase, is dedicated to making inmates acquire some modern biological agronomic practices ranging from fieldwork to the milling to bottling the final product. Inmates are also educated on olive oil tasting, conservation, and sales and marketing strategies. VERSO, the second phase of the Project, sees inmates engaged in exporting this model first to other institutions (including through video courses they hold) and then to other companies.
RECTO VERSO is a social agriculture project: the inmates made it possible to recover the island’s olive trees, the reactivation of an oil mill, and the dream of selling a product of excellence outside the narrow confines of the prison. RECTO VERSO involves 85 men, engaged in the pruning of the olive tree, pressing within hours of harvesting, filtration, and bottling in the absence of air and light.
The idea of recovering native plants and involving prisoners dates back to 2019 thanks to Beatrice Massaza. Walking in the island of Gorgona, among rosemary and marigold plants, Beatrice noticed the Bianca, a variety of olive trees exclusive to the island. The taste of this oil is slightly fruity but with mature notes, perhaps due to the close contact with the sea. However, the path was difficult. Geographical difficulties had to be addressed first. The connections with Gorgona are in fact guaranteed only by the penitentiary police patrol boat. Nonetheless, the inmates continued through the stages of production, as nature could not wait. Since the prisoners have no cell phone and Internet connection, the other node concerned communication, having to go through the necessary triangulation with the guards on the island.
Figure 8
The RECTO VERSO project
Campolattano, P. (2021). Inmates engaged in the olive harvest [Photograph].
To ensure the sustainability of RECTO VERSO, the next steps concerned the development of a crowdfunding campaign, the collaboration with other cooperatives and with distribution centres, and the search for the most suitable market outlets.
Among the synergies already started, the one with Genuine Way stands out. Genuine Way is the certifying body that deals with the verification of the blockchain that provides information on the product; guarantees complete traceability, ease of recycling or disposal of the vacuum; and offers the consumer a transparent price. The prisoners will therefore also be involved in the creation of this digital register of passages, which respects this protocol that is destined to spread more and more in the agri-food sector.
The project cycle does not stop at production. Tasting meetings with
international experts are planned, which will guide inmates to acquire further skills in the universe of oil. Participants will be able to pass from the most acidic to the fruitiest flavours, being informed about the tastes of the buyers, whether they are German, French, or American. This training will be crucial to guide them in developing a marketing and communication campaign suitable for their product. Some inmates already imagine themselves as oil sommeliers, which can be a possibility. After all, the general goal is to help olive growers achieve the same goals achieved in recent years by the players in the wine world.
In November 2020, the RECTO VERSO project won the national Agro-Social award sponsored by Confagricoltura and the Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Italia Group, which together aim to promote the area and invest in social agriculture.
Sea Rescue Dog Training Course
In September 2021, as has happened other times in the past, a Sea Rescue Dog Training course was carried out by the volunteers of the Sogit group of Milan, the Relief Work of the Order of St. John in Italy. The instructors showed the different peculiarities of dog breeds most used for rescue: docility, diversity of coat and coat texture, diversity of weight, agility in and out of the water, and sexual dimorphism. They showed the specific rescue equipment used by the handler and the particular harnesses for the dogs and the techniques used. The inmates actively participated, including bathing and swimming in the sea.
Theatre Activities
Some inmates are engaged in theatrical activities. “Ulysses or Colours of the Mind” is the theatrical show winner of the “NCT 2020 Catarsi - Theatres of Diversity”
award as the best social theatre show in Italy in 2020.
The award ceremony of the prisoners/actors of Gorgona took place recently in Rome (November 2021). The show was conceived within the Theatre in Prison laboratory of the Tuscany region. “Ulysses or Colours of the Mind” has many references to the Homeric poem but tells of another Odyssey, of a contemporary man of today in today’s world. The theatre activities aim to offer prisoners an experience based on social communication through the languages of the scenes.