Gendering Punishment: Juvenile Reformatories in Liberal Italy

In post-unification Italy, reform of the legal system constituted a fundamental step in the construction of a new liberal state. Prisons, which had been a symbol of despotism and cruelty under the old regime monarchs, became a subject of lively debate and a target of government intervention between 1861 and 1914. Parliament and the central prison administration were especially concerned to turn delinquent and wayward children into productive citizens through humane and effective punishment. The main instrument for re-education was the modern reformatory which, during the first decade of the twentieth century (Laws of 1904 and 1907), replaced the old “houses of custody” for minors.

This paper will focus on Rome, which boasted two historic juvenile prisons inherited from the Papal States: San Michele for boys and the Buon Pastore for girls. Experiencing markedly different fates during the liberal period, San Michele was secularized while the Buon Pastore was left under the administration of a Catholic religious order. The liberal reforms of 1904 and 1907, therefore, improved the lives of incarcerated boys more than those of incarcerated girls, whose institution remained private. Based on archival documents (from the Ministry of the Interior), official prison statistics, and parliamentary debates, this paper will explore the causes and effects of this gendered system of punishment within the larger context of debates about citizenship in liberal Italy.