Abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative research on the evaluation of a project aimed at the social re-integration of prisoners. The project involved a sample of prisoners and officers (social workers, civil servants, training agents, volunteers, etc.) and carried out a variety of activities aimed to social rehabilitation: laboratories, internship stages, assertiveness training, unpaid work and community services. The analysis focuses on the different viewpoints collected from the two groups (prisoners and officers), in particular on the question of the gap between the project’s objectives and the goals actually achieved. The results are in line with those of the literature on the marginalisation and criminalization processes of the so-called “unreliablesµ. The resulting scenario, despite the rhetoric on social inclusion, is that of the neutralization of the undesired through the exclusion from the labor market.