FREEDOM FOR THE PRISONERS

Some examples:

Jos�, a boy from the North of Mozambique, fourth of nine brothers, was sixteen and a half when he was sent to prison for having stolen a crate of fruit from a street seller. He was caught while escaping. He remained four years in prison , three more than the sentence. His dossier got lost. The absence of any form legal protection (too expensive for his family) did not allow any application to be made for his case to be re-opened. He was found to be in a serious state of malnutrition, covered in sores - at the age of twenty! By paying a small sum of money it has been possible for his case to be re-opened and re-discussed, thus setting him free, even if after a long delay.

Aurora is only 17 years old, but looks much older. Her teeth are now all decayed, her skin withered. The two years spent in prison have undermined her health, perhaps for ever. She worked as dressmaker's apprentice. It was too great a temptation for her to resist stealing a few meters of material and a pair of scissors. The sentence of one year in prison was doubled because she hadn't got the 300,000 liras to pay the economic sanctions established by law. But for the payment of this sum, the result of a collection of the local Community of Sant'Egidio whom she met in prison while attending a dressmaker's course, she would still be there. Today she is beginning to live again, to sew�and to hope.

Alfredo still has nightmares every night: he dreams of the crowded cell , the shouting, the 60 men crammed in that room. Almost a child at 13 he often came off worst in a world of adults. And that leg, shorter than the other from birth, which he could hardly bend, made him always arrive last in the queue for food by which time there was almost nothing left. He started to confide his fears to those friends who, only slightly less poor than himself, faithfully visit the prisoners and teach them to read and write. Gradually he got to know a "grown up" who was not so hard hearted. And after months of silence, Alfredo began to speak.. He talked with nostalgia of his family who was far away. Not very far, but 80 kms, with no means of transport, is an abyss. His family haven't had news of him for months. Shame stopped him from talking, even to them. The contact with his family is re-established. Alfredo is not dead, he is "only" in prison. Not much was needed to get him out, this little child thief with his poor game leg. His freedom, his childhood that was denied him, were "only" worth 50,000 liras.