Italy extends program to remove children from mafiosi to prevent them from falling into organized crime

The “Free to Choose” program is now extended to the country’s two other major organized crime strongholds, Sicily and Campania.

“A historic moment in the fight against the mafia”, according to the Italian Minister of Justice. Italy announced on Tuesday March 26 that it would extend to Sicily and the Naples region a program which aims to prevent children at risk from following in the footsteps of their mafia parents, by removing them from their families.

The program “Liberi di scegliere” (“Free to Choose”) was founded by juvenile judge Roberto Di Bella in Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot where the peninsula’s most powerful criminal organization, the ‘Ndrangheta, is based. It will now be extended to the country’s two other major bastions of organized crime: Sicily, seat of Cosa Nostra, and Campania, a region of which Naples is the capital, where the Camorra operates.

Some 150 children placed in secret places

Created in 2012, this program aims to break the cycle in which power is transmitted from generation to generation through blood ties. “At 8 years old, we teach children to shoot. At 8 years old, they sell crack”, recalled Chiara Colosimo, the president of the anti-mafia commission in Parliament. Roberto Di Bella said he saw cases of children forced to murder their mothers to defend family honor, but he also took care of children “who still have light in their eyes, who hope for a different life”.

Since the program’s launch, some 150 children have been placed with foster families or communities in secret locations across Italy, where they are discovering life outside the clans. According to Roberto Di Bella, 30 mothers chose to follow their children and seven of them became collaborators of justice. Today judge in Catania (Sicily), he said he received letters from imprisoned mobsters thanking him for helping save their children. “Important mafia bosses have also become state collaborators to protect their children, including one who said he was doing so for his grandchildren.”the judge told AFP.