Bari Stimulus Paper

Bari illustrates an innovation, unique in the Italian environment, taken by a municipal agency in the fight against crime...

The Town

Bari [1] is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia (or, in Italian, Puglia) region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas. The city itself has a decreasing population of about 320.000, over 116 km², while the fast-growing urban area counts 653,028 inhabitants over 203 km². Another 500,000 people live in the metropolitan area, of whom 48.1% were male and 51.9% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 17.90 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 19.08 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Bari residents is 42 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Bari grew by 2.69 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent.[8][9] The current birth rate of Bari is 8.67 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.

The local population is mainly of Italian descent. The largest immigrant group came from other European nations (particularly those from Albania and Greece): 0.68% and East Africa: 0.42%. Immigrants from North Africa and East Asia make up an even smaller portion of the population. Groups of persons coming from China, East Europe, Romania, Philippines and India are considerably growing up, in the last years.

Bari is made up of four different urban sections. To the north is the closely built old town on the peninsula between two modern harbours, with the splendid Basilica of Saint Nicholas, the Cathedral of San Sabino (1035–1171) and the Swabian Castle built for Frederick II, which is now also a major nightlife district. To the south is the Murat quarter (erected by Joachim Murat), the modern heart of the city, which is laid out on a rectangular grid-plan with a promenade on the sea and the major central district.

Modern residential zones surround the centre of Bari, the result of chaotic development during the 1960s and 1970s replacing the old suburbs that had developed along roads splaying outwards from gates in the city walls. In addition, the outer suburbs have developed rapidly during the 1990s. The city has a redeveloped airport named after Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła Airport, with connections to several European cities.

Barivecchia, or Old Bari, is a sprawl of streets and passageways making up the section of the city to the north of the modern Murat area. Barivecchia was until fairly recently considered a no-go area by many of Bari's residents due to the high levels of petty crime. A large-scale redevelopment plan beginning with a new sewerage system and followed by the development of the two main squares, Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese has seen the opening of many pubs and other venues, completely converting the social condition of the area, formerly managed by organized criminalities.

In Bari is located one of the 5 Universities of the Region (it was founded in 1925 and is organized in 12 Faculties), plus the Polytechnic (Architecture and Engineering).

The Municipal Agency for non-repressive crime fight [2]

The establishment of an Agency for a non-repressive fight against organized crime, by the City of Bari, is a unique experience in the Italian environment.

The United Nations consider it a best practice model and is promoting it at international level, so that in some other European cities, such as Gothenburg, Nis, Vranje, Skopje and Gjilan, they are already working to create a similar structure.

Its goal is to build a stable strategy for tackling crime and providing support for those parts of populations most exposed at risk from crime.  People belonging to the Agency meets regularly and works in groups dealing with children, prisoners and ex-prisoners, crime victims, citizens. Also, they work to sustain participatory democracy local processes, to disseminate new levels of awareness of the social condition and to analyze the phenomenon of local crime.

This is the only place where social workers, deans, police officers, judges, prison officials and, occasionally, the mayor of the town, work together by exchanging information and experiences and designing joint projects. Agency initiatives are funded, in addition to the civic budget, by funds obtained throughout the systematic claim for damages that the City of Bari practices in trials against criminal organizations.

Formal partners of the Agency are: Province of Bari, the Centre for Juvenile Justice in Bari, the Office of Social Service for Minor of Bari, the Bari Juvenile Court, the Prosecutor at the Juvenile Court of Bari, the Court of Bari, the Regional school board for Penitentiary Administration, the Regional School Office for Puglia, the Office of Criminal Enforcement Outside of the territory of Bari and the University of Bari Participate in project activities of the Agency also the prefecture of Bari, the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Bari and the Police.

The Agency is organized on the following areas:

• Analysis and research on crime;
• Active participation of citizens and institutions;
• Awareness (social consciousness);
• Assistance to victims;
• Legal Affairs;
• Reintegration and ex-offenders.

Several projects already started; among them, stand out (for the affinity with the themes of this initiative):

• Project “Growing up in the law”. It seeks to ensure that those minors, children of adults convicted for organized crime offenses, can have a healthy growth, as established by the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child, in 1989;

A summary of the idea of fight to the crime through education,  made in the project, is successfully expressed in this short video [3].

• Project IN.C.I.P.I.T. (Which is an acronym meaning: inclusion of pardoned condemned and their integration in community). Beneficiaries (15) of this project have had the opportunity to do a work placement experience and to achieve economic autonomy from licit sources to reduce the risk of recurrence.
• Sports, cultural and recreational activities for minors detained at the Juvenile Prison in Bari: through sport, culture, drama and games, the project aims to consolidate an ever closer relationship between the sport and cultural activities, as both carriers of a set of values that are fundamental to the common life. The initiative is based on the partnership among local organisations.
• Make your radio - Radiokreactive: a Web-radio [4] run by students of local, primary and secondary schools of the city that has a strong mission of spreading the culture of legality and social integration. Currently the project (active since 2005), involves 20 secondary schools only in Bari and another dozen in the region.

A dozen social workers and former students of the same schools are taking part to this initiative which has also the active participation of teachers, school leaders and families, as well as students at risk (over 1000) involved in the drafting of the radio.

• Project: IN&OUT. It is reflected in experimental measures of education in the legal and civil liability in schools classified as "at risk" by the Ministry of Education. The first edition has involved over 600 students from 22 schools of different the levels  in the town. Partners here are: the Regional Education Office, the National Association of Magistrates, the Office of Criminal Enforcement Outside of Bari and the Bari Prefecture The project gave, to the participant students, the opportunity to be the protagonists of round-tables, also participated by the family members of victims of the organized criminality and people who have lived prison experiences.
• Agency for security and legality: Thank to this initiative, seminars have been organized on urban safety and legality involving: local authorities, entrepreneurship, banks, schools, third sector, local administrations and institutions of the central apparatus of justice and security.
• “Victimization” Survey : In July 2010 was signed an agreement with UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute) in order to put in place a range of activities, including a special survey on the perception of security, which may contribute to increase the perception of safety among the citizens of Bari. UNICRI is developing a plan of action for "exporting" the model of the city in other cities of the world. In February 2009 the survey was published and the results will provide a scientific basis for the development of new action strategies.
• XIII World Day of memory and commitment to remember the victims of Mafia: On the March 15, 2008, invited from the Mayor of Bari, the famous associations against mafia, “LIbera (free)” and "Public Notice", presided by Father Luigi Ciotti, came to Bari for the Day of the national memory and commitment, which was extraordinarily attended by over 100 thousand people! The event was organized in close collaboration with the Agency.
• Project Play Pink: The project is involving 100 girls between 5 and 13 years in sports such as football and basketball. Sport as a constructive alternative to deviance is the guiding principle of this project.

The Mayor of Bari, Michele Emiliano, in an interview [5] on the national TV stated that: "The agency weaves a network between schools, magistrates, law enforcement, social centres, and defines the strategies for tackling crime in the place where it grows and changes the lives of children, defining their future. For example, the project “Growing up in the law" is designed to enter the houses at risk not only with the police to execute arrests, but also to come in with plans for the future and to imagine that families of organized criminals can change children’s’ destiny by removing them to this sort of mafia pedagogy".

Another issue actively treated by the Agency is the one of fear control; the same fear that, if not opposed, allows “small bosses of the neighbourhood” to increase their dominion on local territory.

Samples of some initiatives are:

• the recent case of the flames procession [6], which was organized with the support of the Agency, to stigmatize the courage of a merchant who was able to rebel against an injustice for which he was brutally beaten.
• the case of MOMART, a cultural centre which was built with the support of the Agency in a building which had been confiscated from organized criminals who were formerly running illegal gambling in it.

Italy, mainly in the south, is sadly known for the presence of criminal organisations, which are numerous and operate worldwide. Bari, historically, has never been so hostage of such organisations, thus constituting a special case in the South of Italy. It cannot be defined a “happy island”, but represents an evident difference in terms of the presence of criminal organisations. It is a place in which a certain social freedom from these risks is possible, so that even private entrepreneurship can strongly rise and develop.  Having regard to the overall condition of the job market, which, in Apulia registers an unemployment tax of 10.8% against 12-13% in the rest of the south and a national average of 8.5% at the end of last year).  A great job has been done, but there is still a lot to be done in the future.

For discussion:

1. What should still be done to implement this Agency efficiently? What should be done in the nation in which such experiences have provided significant results, in order to ensure a nationwide spreading of the experience?
2. How could schools be, by default, part of such an integration program?
3. Overcoming the social responsibility sense of a learning community, which understands that investing resources in preventing crime diffusion (as a culture) on younger citizens is an enrichment for all  citizenship, who should be formally in charge of this form of prevention? What is the role of a Municipality?
4. Political issues related to the diffusion of a crime prevention culture: what balance between repression and prevention should be sought? Is “collective learning” a political process?

Authors

Nello De Padova: is a founding member of the Learning Cities Association [7]. An electronic engineer and expert in project management, he has been for 15 years,  a consultant for public administration authorities and enterprises on organizational issues and informatics. He is a part time employee of the Municipality of Bari and advices organizations by using organizational learning methods and supporting sustainability enhancements in communities and companies.  He is the author of a book “dePILiamoci” (creative word joking with the GDP index, which is now translated in English as GROSS [8]) This offers a new economic model for fighting the idea of a progress based only on development. He is a founding member of the Italian No Growth Association.

Antonio Massari is president of the Learning Cities Association [7]. He has  20 years experience as a strategic consultant for enterprises, mainly SMEs, in Change Management and Organizational Learning .  As facilitator and researcher, he has developed tools and methods to support learning processes in groups cooperating with academic teams although coming from an informal education perspective He is a specialist in international cooperation initiatives for building transnational networks among local communities.  He has worked as a trainers of managers and practices team coaching in Public Administration.