Email   Print

An inside job

Prison in Italy provides jobs to inmates to help them get back on their feet when released.

Working in the cosmetics lab helps inmates in the women's prison in Venice, Italy, move back into society on their release.

Photo: Rio Tera dei Pensieri

The next time you find yourself in the luxurious Bauer Hotel on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, notice the soap in the restrooms. It’s a Santa Maria degli Angeli product, made by inmates of the women’s prison on Giudecca Island just south of Piazza San Marco. At least 12 of the 75 prisoners work in the 6,000-square-metre (65,000­-square-foot) garden, greenhouse and cosmetics laboratory at the prison. They grow vegetables, as well as aromatic and medicinal plants, to make biodynamic soaps, shampoos, bath foams, deodorants and creams. Then they sell them to local hotels. The vegetables are used at the prison and sold on Giudecca Island.

The inmates got into the business thanks to the Rio Terà dei Pensieri co-operative of Venice. Members have been working with local prisons for years. For the women of Giudecca Island prison, the benefits of being involved in a business are striking. “An inmate who has worked is always better prepared and equipped for life outside,” says co-operative president Gian Pietro D’Errico.

“Before [doing this], I often stayed in bed all day,” says one 30-year-old inmate, who’s six years into an eight-year sentence for dealing drugs. “Now I have a reason to get up in the mornings,” as workers can earn up to $1,100 a month. On release, the inmate hopes to have “a family and a job, just like everybody else.” And having a job inside won’t hurt when it’s time for her to get one outside.