Abstract

This paper is based on the socio-economic approach adopted by Alessandro Baratta in his studies on detention, with the aim of understanding the phenomenon of the detention of women and its peculiarities compared to the detention of men, especially concerning the quantitative aspect: women in detention represent a very small percentage of the prison population and this percentage remains small despite the changes and transformations that society has gone through. The outcome of this research will be presented in the last paragraph of this paper: a) to express a critical judgment on the measures recently implemented by the Italian prison administration in order to improve the conditions of women in detention (with reference to the provisions of the "Internal Regulations for penitentiary institutions and female sections"); b) to review the results achieved in the process of gender emancipation in our country. The condition of women within the legal and institutional penalty procedure reveals and amplifies the strengths and weaknesses that characterize our society as a whole.