Il delicato bilanciamento tra esigenze securitarie relative alle donne autrici di reati ostativi e la tutela della salute psichico-fisica dei bambini ultradecenni portatori di handicap totalmente invalidanti

Several studies have shown that juvenile offenders’ children may risk developing more psychopathologies with externalising and internalising symptoms, school difficulties or dropouts (Murray and Farrington, 2008). To overcome these difficulties, the current legal framework in Italy offers a wide protection of prisoners’ parenting, which has recently been completed by the Supreme Judge of Laws. The ruling of the Constitutional Court no. 18/2020 is linked to ruling no. 350 of 2003, which provided for the application of the measure of home detention to cases where the child under the age of 10 was “totally disabling handicapped”, even to children over 10 years of age and in cases where the crimes attributed to parental figures were of an “ostativa” nature, taking a further important step to protect the rights of children of detainees and the parental relationship. It should be noted that the judge who drafted this judgment, who later became President of the Constitutional Court, Marta Cartabia, said in reference to this ruling that mild law was applied, in other words, a new concept of justice and punishment was created, useful as a model for future jurists but also psychologists.