Abstract

The article shows the results of an empirical research carried out in a prison in the North of Italy. In particular, the author has investigated the concrete application of some principles of restorative justice in the everyday dynamics of the prison system. The results show some of the problematics connected with the application of restorative justice’s practices in a frame, the prison system, that seem unsuitable to promote a real reconciliation between offender and victim. The author underline how specific practices connected with restorative justice ideas seems to be able to provoke side effects like, for example, delays in the admission to alternative to prison. Finally, the author wishes that the current reform projects of the Italian criminal justice system would take into account the actual problematics in the concrete application of the restorative justice principles