(ANSA) - NAPLES, DECEMBER 22 - "I've been in prison many times since I was 20. I took training courses that gave a token and that's it, but this time a real course worked in Poggioreale, now I'm a pizza chef and I've had a contract since January a pizzeria. And I know that I will never go back to prison".
Mirko is 44 years old, after a history of mistakes he is ready to leave prison in Naples with a new life thanks to the course held in Poggioreale by the manager of a pizzeria, who has already hired him.
The man, born in the center of Naples, tells his sideline story of the Christmas lunch organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio for prisoners.
After months of first study and then practice, Mirko is now a really capable pizza maker: "I have almost two and a half years left to serve but I'm waiting for the magistrate to give me permission to go to work outside the pizzeria, hopefully from January. I've always been wrong, ever since when I was very young, I began to use drugs and therefore I always needed money which I did illegally. In prison I never had a way of working, there were no activities and therefore I used to go back to it. Instead, now I know that this is the last time in prison because I have a path in life where I learned a trade".
Decisive steps as also underlined by the mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi,
who had lunch today with the inmates of Poggioreale: "Training is very important - he explains - as Rector of the Federico II prison, I started the university center in the Secondigliano prison which is having great results, many inmates are taking courses, some have graduated and find job opportunities at the Being able to choose recovery means giving hope and opportunities for everyone and this is an important sign of democracy".
(HANDLE).