Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WOMEN’S PRISON WORKSHOPS across Italy are joining up under a new commercial fashion brand they hope will help encourage more detainees to learn the trade and give them hope for a future on the outside.
The Sigillo (Seal) brand unveiled by the justice ministry this year will be available in the shops within months – a unique experiment that has given new energy to places like a handbag workshop at Rebibbia prison in Rome.
“When I get out I want to have a more normal, a calmer life. With this job I’m sure everything will be okay with me. I’ve learnt a lot here,” said Kalu Uwaezuoke Chinedum Ike, a Nigerian facing drug trafficking charges.
The 40-year-old works three afternoons a week in a room with sewing machines, cutting tables and bars on the windows.
Rows of blue-doored cells can be seen from the workshop in what is Italy’s biggest women’s prison with more than 700 detainees.
After more than three years inside as she awaits the conclusion of her trial, Kalu has acquired a knack for stitching and beading.
“I’ve always been a person who likes dressing well, even when I didn’t have enough to eat,” she said, adding: “I have a real passion for it!”
Overcrowded
Prisons in Italy are notoriously overcrowded, and funding has been repeatedly cut in recent years, making for what Justice Minister Annamaria Cancellieri recently called a penal system “that is not worthy of a civilised country”.
There are a few exceptions – innovative projects like a theatre workshop, also at Rebibbia, whose performance of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” became the award-winning film “Caesar Must Die” released two years ago.
After three years of bureaucratic hurdles, promoters of Sigillo hope the project – which has €400,000 in funding from the justice ministry and €400,000 from charities – will be a similar success.
“The aim of the project is to give female detainees the tools to be in the marketplace once they are released,” said Nanda Roscioli, a former justice ministry employee and consultant who has been involved from the start.
Roscioli said it is also a way of countering a prison system oriented towards male detainees in which women are a “subordinate” minority.
“This makes conditions for female detainees harsher, more barbaric,” Roscioli said.
As far as I know this programme is unique.
Daniela Arronenzi, head of the Rebibbia workshop charity, said she signed up to the non-profit project because it would give prison-made garments access to a wider retail network and something resembling an actual fashion business.
“Of course, prison is a place of problems. There is overcrowding, there are budget cuts, but then there is also this,” she said.
The Sigillo brand
The initial plan is to hire 10 female detainees from workshops across the country and train 40 more who will produce under the Sigillo brand for big fashion names, as well as filling special orders for corporate marketing products.
The handbags made in Rebibbia sell for up to €40 each.
Supporters say the project is not exploitative because detainees will receive a regular part-time salary of €600 a month – comparable to their counterparts on the outside – and participation is voluntary.
Chinedum Ike and another member of the Rebibbia cooperative, Ukrainian detainee Natalya, currently receive around €150, which they can send to family or spend on food and hygiene products in the prison.
The initiative is supported by Silvia Venturini Fendi, heiress of the Fendi fashion business, which is owned by French luxury giant LVMH.
Making handbags
For 33-year-old Natalya, who has been inside for three years, making handbags has little to do with glitzy catwalks or commercial success.
“For a time, we feel psychologically that we are not inside these walls. That’s the reason for programmes like this. To switch off,” said Natalya, who is also a proficient guitarist and pianist who plays at Sunday mass in the chapel.
“Sigillo is also about personal satisfaction. When we create things and they are sold, are appreciated, then we enjoy our work,” Natalya said.
She added: “When I get out of here, I would like to open a shop.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
An old teacher of mine used to say..that truth has three sides
. What you say happened
.What you think happened
..What really happened
Wonder which side we’ll hear?
Not the third one, I’d bet, Kiran.
Yes Mr. Gleeson. And the cozy consensus now among the bankers and mainstream economic commentators is a big “mea culpa hands up, we made a mistake” as they depart the scene of destruction with bulging pockets and pensions.
This is another fraud being played out in front of our eyes at the banking enquiry. The senior players in central and commercial banking in Ireland across Europe and in the ECB understood completely that the property bubbles in Ireland, Spain etc were unsustainable pyramid schemes.
The banking and economic insiders were fully aware that these were bogus booms fuelled by massive credit expansion via the commercial banks and that they would inevitably go bust with a a cataclysmic economic bang as has occurred on numerous occasions in the past in Japan etc.
This capitalist elite have long understood however that they benefit disproportionately in both the boom and bust phases of the inherently unstable capitalist economic cycle always at the expense of labour (vast majority). Therefore that elite and their political enablers continually promote policy and measures to inflate the booms and deepen the busts at the expense of the many.
So the booms are fueled by massive credit expansion through the private banks as we saw during the Irish property bubble. This drives up asset prices and profit margins for the plutonomy at a much faster rate than any wage increases. And the 1% big capital owners with superior market information have always known when to get out of the losing plays in time while a complicit media will continue to cheerlead the booms to manipulate the masses until the inevitable crash occurs. (This will sound very familiar to Irish ears).
In the reverse, the supply of money is restricted to deepen and prolong the bust. As we can see under the Austerity program, the ongoing recession and consequent unemployment is being used as a lever to viciously drive down wages and working conditions which also maximizes the gains to capital. In parallel, the national assets (like water) and social support systems (like health) are shredded and opened up for predatory fire sale purchases and privatization to gouge rents going forward and perpetually enrich Denis O Brien and his ilk at the expense of the people.
Spare us your crocodile tears Mr. Gleeson.
It is so frustrating: he wrestles with his conscience. We wrestle with out bills. I know which one I would rather be doing
Sorry – *Kieran!
Well put.
“AIB lent too much to individual developers”…..get outa here!
They listened to the Meeja
Who thought they knew it All
But they were only shovlin’ Shite
The same as Fianna Fail
The Wunch of Bankers maxing Debt
And preying on decent Folk
And now Our Nation once Again
In pain and stoney Broke
And to make up for it all the people who made these decisions will lose part of their pensions because otherwise that statement is completely meaningless
DG is a man of extraordinary intelligence and talent having spent a career cross examining witnesses. It’s somewhat ironic that at this stage of his life he has to admit, like a defendant in the dock, that as a person trusted by the shareholders of AIB, that he failed utterly to have seen the wood from the trees when it mattered most and the devastation for so many that has followed as a consequence. As a decent man he must be truely embarassed and ashamed at what happened under his watch at AIB.
Decent man, we have so many of them. The elite of this country are all decent men. The consummate crooks are the little people. Old school tie and golf club membership define the man. But wait….
Oooo this is going to be juicy. There will be some damning revelations to come.
Ohh a Biderberger?
Not talking about Depopulation, Eugenics and Population Control today?
“I’m sorry” now where’s a FAT pension… ta ra lads I’m off now suckers..
I did my level best ….made a packet out of it, got mega lump and retirement package just the same as if I had do my job. Accountability that’s for little people. God banking is great anyone for a round of golf?
I would imagine if you or I had made the same ” errors” of judgement in our workplace and nearly closed the company we would be sued or at least investigated for criminal negligence.
We are a very placid race of people, too placid .
Bent political Leaders, in the pocket DPP and judiciary, white collar criminal heaven.
Dermot Gleeson from AIB wasn’t in the room, Brendan Mcdonagh wasn’t in the room…
Was there anyone present when fatal decision was made….. ??? !!!
Denny Crane – and even he isn’t absolutely sure he was in the room, owing to the ‘mad cow’.
An apology is a form of admission of guilt.
Shouldn’t they pay their own debts now then?
With the interest rates they’re charging on free money, they shouldn’t be long raising €80 billion.
Still I’d imagine the massive pension he’s on will be some consolation to him as he broods over his failings
Actions speak louder than words, make a bloody donation
You can stuff your sorrys a in a sack mister.
These gangsters couldn’t give a rats arse about the savage damage they have inflicted on us and the lives of our children and grandchildren …they are still laughing all the way to the bank(s). Nothing will be done to or with them or their very generous pensions.. It’s sheer criminal .. A bloody joke of an investigation .
‘I did my level best, but it wasn’t enough. I can never get away from that’
Yeah but the money in your accounts soften the blow somewhat.
Wonder where all the usual trolls are? No doubt out buying up boxes of black ink cartridges for their masters…..really is scandalous stuff none the less
As Christopher Brookmyre has it ‘a big boy did it and ran away’.
Stuuf yer apologies. I want JUSTICE………………
That’s no use at all considering the huge wages they pay themselves. We the taxpayers picked up the tab for their incompetence. If I screw up I can’t even get the dole, if they screw up they get looked after. I see the system is well set up in their favour.friends in high places and all that.
Another one asleep at the wheel!
Once again no accountability or responsibility.
Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, no, don’t look there…i said look into my eyes…321 your in the room…:(
And he met Patrick neary in government hallway and had a personal chat,nothing about the country hours from bankruptcy.who believes this bull.
To simplify…CON JOB. Multiple CON JB
And please Mr. Gleeson tell us what pension you walked off with.
Tony Hartigan, If he never got a pension from A.I.B., he could still survive at a push on his Attorney General’s pension of €47,918, a pension he has been in receipt of since 1997
Which is he prouder of? Running AIB into the ground or hounding Brigid McCole on her deathbed when he was AG?
Gleeson if you are so sorry give back your big bonus and your fat pension
I see the bankers’ apologists are out early!
321 ‘hypnotist’ couldnt hypnotise…321…youre (not actually) in the room…anyone who falls for the ‘i wasn’t there’…is very innocent/nieave altogether. Sure werent we all played to perfection…the three card trick…magic is illusion…as Tommy Cooper used to say…’just like that’…boom..
He is sorry is he. That will make my life a whole lot better.
Why does accountability go out the window the higher you get up the ladder? Anyone who commits this level of prolonged negligence in almost any other industry would be facing serious personal consequences and would be ostracized by their peers, meanwhile the old boys network kicks in for these guys ensuring the safety of their personal finances and benefits, before moving on to secure each other the best deals on the assets available in the fire sale resulting from the illogical impatience of the IBRC. The electorate foot the bill despite having little or no say in how the situation is dealt with by a government that refuses to acknowledge the fact that it no longer represents the will or best interests of the people but instead cooks the books of “Ireland Incorporated” .
All refrain:
“In the National interest!”
Must be like speaking double dutch to these useless incompetent moronic self serving politicians who don’t understand the concept of “not being good enough” because of course they all think their all great in their own little self important wooden heads!
I keep hearing who wasn’t in that room that night but apart from lenihan and Cowan I don’t know who was in that bloody room. Why do we need an inquiry to know what happened? Was Cowan and lenihan not asked in the dail what happened and exactly who made the decision to guarantee Anglo and nationwide and if they were asked and God help us surely someone did were they not telling. These guys are turning up to this inquiry with an army of lawyers and when it’s over we the tax payers will be told mistakes were made. Everyone in that room is being paid huge pensions btw and will continue to be paid huge pensions.
He said ‘he did his level best’.
Am I thick or am I missing something here? If he did his best the bank wouldn’t have lent so much money.
Can somebody please explain?
Ain’t was extremely greedy.
Today the good clients of former years are ignored!
AIB does not respond to correspondence.
All staff are moved so today you are dealing with strangers!
AIB are charging huge interest on variable loans – up to 4.5% at pa time when cost of borrowing is 0.05% – giving the bank a huge margin of 4.45%PA.
The highest bank changes in the EU.
The Irish Taxpayers bailed out AIB – high interest rates is no gratitude to Irish Taxpayers.
Crazy!
A blowtorch to his feet will get him singing. I want the video.
They went to school to learn the Rule
But never studied Mortar
Lo and behold contained no Gold
Just sand, cement and Water!
Any engineers on the boards of these banks?
Is there not one wee bit of gonzo in you Hugh? Spit it out man! ;-)
have your say