Italian experts warn that prisoner isolation in Chile is insufficient without solid penitentiary structure
Chilean and Italian academics debated the 41 bis regime and the transfer of inmates to La Laguna prison in Talca at the Usach.
Isolation regime in Chile: the Italian model under scrutiny
The transfer of high-risk inmates to La Laguna prison in Talca has again sparked academic debate. According to elmorrocotudo.cl, an international seminar organised by the Department of Political Studies at the University of Santiago (Usach) brought together Italian and Chilean experts to analyse whether strict isolation of organised crime leaders is sufficient to dismantle their networks.
The keynote speaker, Antonello Canzano, professor at Gabriel D'Annunzio University and one of the academics with the greatest knowledge of how Calabrian organised crime operates, described the transfer of detainees to the Talca facility as essential. However, he emphasised that such isolation is only effective when supported by penitentiary infrastructure and organisation capable of cutting off all communication with the outside world.
The Italian 41 bis: history and scope
Experts explained the penitentiary regime known as 41 bis, established in Italy in 1975 with the aim of preventing organised crime bosses from maintaining control of their networks of influence and corruption from prison. Antonio Nicaso, professor at Queen's, St. Jerome, Toronto and Middlebury College universities, and member of the advisory board of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security, recalled that the system received decisive momentum in 1992, following the murders of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
"It completely severs relations between these high-risk detainees and the affiliates on the outside who continue with criminal activities," Nicaso detailed. The academic further emphasised that the 41 bis model has a duration of four years renewable, and was categorical regarding the timeframe applied in Chile: "Six months is very little, so it will not be effective, because belonging to the mafia is neither occasional nor time-limited. The prisoner does not distance himself from the organisation."
Chile "was not prepared"
Nicaso was direct in assessing the Chilean situation: the country did not have an adequate legislative system nor a police force prepared to confront organised crime. He highlighted that economic-financial intelligence is key, given that money laundering is the principal activity of major criminal organisations. "Intelligence is fundamental, and above all economic-financial intelligence, because the principal activity of the mafia is money laundering, that is infiltrating and embedding themselves in the legitimate economy," he added.
On the debate surrounding bank secrecy in Chile, Nicaso noted that in Italy it was not necessary to lift it: "A law is sufficient that allows judges, the State, and the Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate without limits."
Vision from Chilean academia
Jorge Araya, a public security expert and academic at Usach, valued the Italian model as a valid reference for Chile. He indicated that La Laguna prison in Talca, whose construction had been underway for nine years, represents "a correct path". Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the constitutional reform in security promoted by the Executive remained frozen in the Senate and had generated criticism from both the left and the centre-right.
The former director of public security under Michelle Bachelet's government added that criminal penalties inevitably involve a sacrifice of certain fundamental rights, although he specified that inmates must have minimum conditions of dignity: adequate food, absence of overcrowding, and some space for communication, even if restricted.
Structural differences with Italian organised crime
Mauricio Olavarría, doctor in Public Policy and member of the Department of Political Studies at Usach, warned that incarceration alone does not stop criminal activity nor dismantle gangs, because these tend to replicate themselves within prisons.
Olavarría established a substantial difference between the Italian model and the Chilean context: "This idea of segmentation is reasonable, but in the Italian case it was directed towards the major leaders and, as we see in the Chilean case, we do not have the superior structure that Calabrian organised crime has." According to the academic, the groups operating in Chile control territories through force and intimidation, while in Italy violence is avoided by major organisations because it attracts State attention. "They want to blend in with the State and not confront it, because it costs them, therefore the activity is more underground," he clarified.
Olavarría described the seminar as a success for having counted on leading experts to address a problem that, according to participants, demands long-term legislative, penitentiary and institutional responses.
Source: Google News CL — Crime