Sassari, free inside and outside prison: 50 inmates, archivists and actors

Lorenzo, Matteo, Salvatore and many others, over 50 inmates of the Bancali prison "at work in article 21", archivists and actors of a script written and staged by themselves. Their stories are contained in the volume "LiberaMente a teatro" the story of a project that began in 2012 with the involvement of young prisoners, who had the opportunity to access different forms of work in the field of archival and theatrical dramatization.

The book, written by the brothers Vittorio and Alessandro Gazale - director of the Asinara National Park, the former, and theater and film actor and director the latter - was presented in Sassari, in the local "Il Vecchio Mulino" in the presence of the prefect Grazia La Fauci and the commissioner of the Asinara Park, Giovanni Cubeddu. A text dedicated to Patrizia Incollu, former director of San Sebastiano and Bancali who recently passed away, main promoter of the project together with the head of the educational area of Bancali Ilenia Troffa. It recounts ten years of activity, a project whose central core is the educational area of the Sassari prison - first in San Sebastiano and then in Bancali - which saw the collaboration of the State Archives and the Asinara and Porto Parks Conte, for the recovery of the old archives of the former penal colonies of Sardinia. The project involved voluntary bodies and associations, such as "Oltre i muri" chaired by Marina Maruzzi.

In the last part of the volume some free and spontaneous declarations from the children are reported: a blank space filled with loving reflections and personal thoughts. Ten testimonies of positive internal journeys and profound changes were selected. Mario, 62 years old, ended up in prison in Asinara in the 1980s: «As an archivist in Asinara Park I found the papers of my history and experienced the mistakes of those years». Ylli 41 years old comes from Albania. «I have been visiting prisons since 1998, and I have been in Bancali for about 4 years. I would like to say four things to that boy from 25 years ago, I try to do it by looking in the mirror, but now I can't find him anymore: he's grown up, he's totally changed." Salvatore, 54 years old from Catania, in prison since 1993 subjected to article 41 bis. "This measure does not serve to make a person calmer, more aware of the mistakes he has made."

The project also includes the six prisoners who saved an archive that was rotting in a basement of the former penal colony of Tramariglio, active in Alghero from 1940 to 1962 and now home to the Porto Conte park.