They work in the Pietra di Scarta social cooperative in Cerignola (Foggia) and are following the phases of agricultural processing first and then of agri-food transformation.
These are two former Cerignola inmates who benefited from the external penal execution program once their final sentence was reached following their good behavior and the path followed in prison.
Their names are Nino and Franco and since October they have been working in Cerignola in the Francesco Marcone legality laboratory (named after the director of the Foggia register killed in 1995), confiscated from the mafia which the cooperative has managed since 2010. Here they grow olives, tomatoes, vegetables, grapes and fruit.
The two ex-prisoners obtained two work grants as part of the 'In me there is no future' project carried out by the social cooperative thanks to the financing of the eight per thousand tender from the Waldensian church.
They have a regular contract, notes Giuseppe Mennuni, the cooperative's agriculture manager, and they receive the salary expected from the established working relationship.
They are employed for 6 hours and a half a day and are currently used for the olive harvest, then there will be the pruning phase, the fertilization phase and then the tomato harvest to move on to the transformation phase.
"Their work grant - explains the president of the cooperative Pietro Fragasso - ends in June but they will certainly extend their working relationship with us".
It is important "to give a future and a lever of perspective - he further observes - to those who have known experiences like those of prison. Work on self-esteem. Provide a second chance. It is essential to carry out experiences like this on an asset confiscated from the mafia, highlighting that soul of common good that places like this have in Cerignola, land of the mafia - concludes Fragasso - but above all land of Giuseppe DiVittorio and cradle of labor law".
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