The Lazzarelle cooperative diversifies and grows: not even the earthquake in the Campi Flegrei managed to weaken it. It is a social enterprise that started coffee production in 2011 inside the women’s prison in Pozzuoli, Campania _ initiated by Imma Carpiniello, a political science graduate with a strong entrepreneurial spirit _ and later also opened a bistro in the Galleria Principe in Naples. The cooperative’s goal is to provide work for incarcerated women, allow them to have some honestly earned money, deter recidivism, and learn a trade that can be useful when they return to normal life.
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The project initially meets resistance, then the women involved become passionate and bring others along. It becomes established and undoubtedly produces positive effects. But the earthquake in the Campi Flegrei area, in May 2024, with a magnitude 4.4 shock, knocks out the main activity, coffee production. The Pozzuoli prison, which houses the roasting activity, is damaged by the earthquake: cracks open in the cells and other parts of the historic building, a former 15th-century convent. Thus, the evacuation of about 140 inmates becomes necessary; they are first taken to the courtyard for safety and then transferred to other penitentiary institutions in the region.
Many of them are transferred to a wing of the Secondigliano prison, also in Naples, where available space is limited. There is no possibility of transferring the Lazzarelle activities there either. It is feared that the coop will have to downsize or even cease its activity. But no. “We relied on an external roasting company run by friends already engaged in the third sector,” the promoter says, “it is a temporary arrangement. We are looking for other spaces to reorganize production.” Then she adds: “In truth, we never stopped. And the shock caused by the earthquake pushed us to do even more.”
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First, the bistro activity in the Galleria Principe, opposite the Mann, the Archaeological Museum of Naples, one of the most important and richest in the world, always crowded with tourists, is expanded. Established in 2013 thanks to the support of the Charlemagne Foundation, the Lazzarelle Bistro aims to be a place where, through food, conviviality, and the pleasure of a coffee or a salad, one actively participates in the empowerment of incarcerated and former incarcerated women and men from many Italian prisons and in spreading the culture of rethinking prison from a punitive system to a place of social reintegration. The bistro also becomes a cultural reference point, as it is used for exhibitions, conferences, meetings, and book presentations. These activities intensify and the number of women working there grows.
Then a new cooperative starts that deals with catering for public events, conferences of all kinds, and also private events and parties. The kitchen is located inside the premises annexed to the Church of Pio Monte della Misericordia, another monument in the historic center of Naples, better known because it houses Caravaggio’s The Seven Works of Mercy. The cooperative hires a chef and a pastry chef, then involves 5 incarcerated women, thus starting another adventure of rehabilitation and economy.
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