From a temporary and limited protocol to a law for the protection of minors and women ready to leave organized crime contexts. “Free to choose” from July 17, 2026, is an Italian law (no.131) unanimously approved by Parliament. And those who, in 2012, conceived it in its original form today betray a great emotion.
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«We were not adventurers»
«They told us everything, that we violated the rules, that we deported minors, that we were legal adventurers and instead time and the results obtained have shown that we could really offer an alternative to the children and women of the bosses. That we could counter juvenile delinquency by interrupting the transmission of mafia culture»: Roberto Di Bella, president of the Juvenile Court of Catania since 2020, directed for 25 years, before his transfer to Sicily, the same judicial office in Reggio Calabria.
Minors and white widows
Territories with high mafia pervasiveness, where Di Bella developed a series of transitional protection measures, such as removing children from mafia families and measures of forfeiture or limitation of parental responsibility. «Thus we saved more than 200 children and 34 women. The goal has always been to protect the youngest first, safeguarding their emotional and physical integrity, proposing paths in communities or foster families, beyond regional borders, often relieving mothers of responsibilities too difficult to assume. Many of them are white widows, prisoners of their families, with husbands serving life sentences».
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A milestone to combat youth distress
The protocol, which over the years had extended from Reggio to the prosecutors of Naples, Catania and Milan, was studied by the parliamentary anti-mafia commission, chaired by Chiara Colosimo, examined by the Committee on the culture of legality and protection of minors, coordinated by the Democratic Party senator Enza Rando. Thus it became a state law. «I was in the chamber when Free to choose was unanimously voted. A strong emotion, for the work done up to that moment and for the minors and mothers to whom we gave hope. The law represents a precedent at the global level, there is nothing similar in any other legal system – adds Di Bella -. Now multidisciplinary training paths are needed for magistrates, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, teachers. The law can become a milestone in strategies to prevent youth distress».
In case of arrests for mafia-related acts or more generally organized crime of parents of minors, for example, it is provided that custody orders in prison or house arrest are immediately transmitted to juvenile courts.
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