Bologna, Emilia Romagna – Talk to me insideright here where it hurts the most. Talk to me inside, beyond the bars. Tell me about a life I dream of having again. Tell me about what I can’t see from in here. It sounds like this the “call to words” launched on the occasion of Christmas by Vincenzo Casillo Foundationin collaboration with Free insidean educational and training radio and television program edited by Eduradio&TV, created to create a bridge between the Rocco D’Amato prison in Bologna and the rest of the city.
Talk to me inside is an invitation to write a letter to a prisoner, to remove those who live in prison from invisibility. Telling someone you don’t know about a book you’ve just read, a song you love, or a trip you’ve taken can be an act of intimate kindness. As well as tell your story and entrust a little of yourself to the words of a letter, perhaps to find a breath in writing that no other form of communication would allow us better. There are those who have never written letters and those who have never stopped doing it, without fear of being out of time: the invitation is addressed to everyone.
«We started from an assumption – says Marilù Ardillo, communication manager of the Vincenzo Casillo Foundation and creator of the initiative -, namely that words have immense power. Yet also small, simple. With words we move emotions, thoughts, we reach places, we draw imagessometimes we even perceive sounds and smells. Combined with intentions, words can reverse the order of the world. They can hatch a smile even in front of the dark ».
Trying to alleviate the loneliness of those in prison is one of the goals of the initiative. Some of the letters sent in these weeks will be transcribed or read on the Foundation’s social channelswhile others will be read in December during the radio-television program Liberi interno, visible on a deferred basis on YouTube and broadcast daily not only for the 750 inmates of the Rocco D’Amato prison in Bologna, but also for those in other prisons in the Emilia-Romagna region and for all citizens. In fact, the program is broadcast on the regional television channels Icaro TV (channel 18) and Lepida TV (in streaming).
Talk to me inside is an invitation to write a letter to a prisoner, to remove those who live in prison from invisibility
«It is essential for us to speak outside prison – begins Antonella Cortese, journalist and coordinator of the Eduradio&TV project – because the future for ex-convicts lies there. It is important to form a society that knows how to be welcoming to those who have made a mistake and paid for it. There is a lot of work to be done to break down the stigma from which these people often fail to free themselves for the rest of their lives”. Born in April 2020, in full lockdown, the project is the result of the will and collaboration of the network made up of teachers, trainers, spiritual assistants, institutional service operators and volunteers who have been working inside the Bologna prison for years.
The health emergency from Covid-19 and the interruption of any contact with the outside world has relegated the inmates to an atrocious and angry isolation resulting in protests in many Italian prisons. Locked in a cell, losing contact with others was even more painful than those who found themselves relegated to the four walls of their own homes. «With Liberi inside we have not interrupted contact with the prisoners – continues the coordinator of the project -, but above all we have worked to build a different narrative of prison and an unprecedented opportunity for “civil protagonism” through radio and television.
With Talk to me inside we want to build a bridge between citizens and prison, not as an invisible place, but as an integral part of the city and of society itself. «The intent is to place a fragment of our free life in the hands of an isolated and often judged person.whether it’s a stimulus, an inspiration, a wish, or even just a hug», concludes Marilù Ardillo.
«In recent years in prisons I have encountered the sense of shame of those who, far from their own country, have cut all ties with their family of origin and perhaps have lost track of themselves. But above all I met a lot of humanity», adds Antonella Cortese. “Political will is often lacking, but the question of the rehabilitation of those who are serving a sentence concerns us all. And also very closely ».
There is still time until 11 December to write a letter, a thought or even a few lines to a detained person. The e-mail address to send them to is parlamidentro@gmail.com.
Talk to me inside. Even a letter can alleviate the loneliness of a prisoner