Prison as a place of (extra)ordinary violence. First notes on ten years of post-unification history

Abstract

Prison can be defined as a world of its own, with its own rules, where guards and inmates share slowly passing days and where time seems to have lost all meaning. Within this environment, characterised by high walls, lives are consumed by pain and suffering. The present essay employs the initial ten editions of the Bullettino Ufficiale della Direzione delle Carceri (1871-1880), published in the Rivista delle discipline carcerarie, to illustrate the pervasiveness of violence, manifesting in suicides, acts directed against both guards and fellow inmates, and acts of self-harm. A disconcerting observation is that there is an almost perfect overlap between the images of the past and present, as if centuries of civilisation have transpired in vain.