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At Cagliari dirty linen is washed in prison

Them and us. Prison has always been seen in our collective imagination with a certain dose of detachment and often with indifference, as a place of exile for those marginalized by the society. In reality the society is undergoing a different perception lately, so much so that we could consider ourselves to be facing a new awareness. Prison is part of the society, and not a separate element. Thus, the nouns socialization and re-education, evoked in the Constitution, are not just value principles to be used as inspiration models, but they could gain a real meaning if concrete actions are carried out. “Our cooperative was founded in prison in 2012 following a request from a consortium which we are part of, to clean the laundry inside the Juvenile Penitentiary Institute in Quartucciu, near Cagliari (the only juvenile prison existing in Sardinia),” says Anna Tedde, the President of the Elan Social Cooperative.

Lav(or)ando

By participating to a tender, we won the contract for handling and cleaning the uniforms of the municipal police in Cagliari.
From an educational point of view, this is a very strong signal. It means treating and cleaning personal protective equipment properly, a service that many other laundries are not willing or are not able to offer.” We have a competitive labour cost compared to other companies, as we can benefit of the Smuraglia law that recognizes a subsidy of up to 540 euros per month for each person employed.” But the journey is only at the beginning. In 2018, the Uta Adult Correctional Facility (through the Foundation with the South) shows its interest to manage the laundry inside the prison for adults.”

Immediately after responding to the call for bids of Uta Correctional Facility for the laundry management, the Foundation with the South has published the bid request called “I’m going to work” and, in response, our cooperative presented the project Lav(or)ando with the aim of improving employment conditions and promoting the social integration of 24 individuals under penal detention measures, through work and training opportunities both inside and outside the prison institutions. Lav(or)ando was one of the 8 projects supported in Italy by the Foundation with the South. Our project was considered interesting, it was financed and thus the laundry started. Unlike the juvenile prison, in the adult prison we do not wash the prisoners’ clothing although we hope to be able to do so in the nearest future.”

Lav(or)ando is not just a project, isn’t it?

“In addition of being the name of our project, Lav(or)ando is also an ethical brand registered to the Ministry of Economic Development (Mise). It is open to all businesses and public entities that endorse the principles of Civil Economy and want to contribute to initiatives that promote the social integration of prisoners. The contribution can be made in two ways: either as a host company, by welcoming detainees into your company with work placement projects, or by assigning work orders and laundry services to Elan cooperative to help operate the two laundries located in the Uta Correctional Facility and the Quartucciu Juvenile Detention Center where prisoners are being employed.”

How is the “team” of workers organized inside the laundry?

“We are in prison and it is obviously like a “madhouse”. Doing anything is always very complicated,” says Elenia Carrus, the Vice President of the Cooperative and Head of the Inclusion Area. “The laundry, despite of its location within the detention area and despite the complications this generates in terms of operations and timing, is an active and economically balanced enterprise/unit. We are trying to raise the bar. Currently our target market is that of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement. Elan currently serves mainly the Ministries of Defence, Justice and the Interior with the washing of uniforms and linen of the Carabinieri, Army, Navy, Firefighters, State Police.

The choice stemmed from a market survey, but it also has a strong educational and symbolic significance: the fact that detainees are contributing to the functioning of law enforcement by cleaning their “dirty laundry” can be seen as a symbolic act of repair and responsibility, a way for them to “cleanse” or “remedy” in some way the errors of the past, demonstrating through their work a commitment to the society. In the juvenile detention centre, the boys are supported by two tutors, including a psychologist, then we also have a technical manager who follows both laundries. The workers undergo a professional orientation training necessary to define the balance of their skills, useful for them in the phase of their release from detention, to facilitate their integration into local businesses. Businesses that can operate in the laundry sector, but not necessarily; it depends a lot on the skills required by the local production sector.

For example, we have inserted a 60-year-old man who entered prison due to a drug addiction problem that led him to break the law and who found himself without any family support. No money and no home. We managed to place him in a local company that handles waste management. People starting work always begin with an internship. Paradoxically, we prioritize those with longer sentences so that we can give stability to the work relationship. In reality, the teacher proceeds with selections as the workforce must have some essential requirements. One of the biggest difficulties concerns the understanding of the text not only for non-Italian prisoners but also for those from the Sardinian territory. We have tried to create “work teams” that have allowed us, as selectors, to bring out a skill that we didn’t think we had; we discovered ourselves as tightrope walkers”.

“Our employees have a regular work contract with CCNL (National Collective Labour Agreement) for Social Cooperatives, adds president Anna Tedde. We pay the wages to the prison institution, which then distributes the money to them. There is a monitoring process carried out by the institute, and the facility also withholds a part of the wage, which is called “extra-wage”, considering they are practically residents of the facility.
A sort of contribution to forced living expenses or that can be interpreted as a form of “compensation” from the detainees to the society. As for the juvenile detention centre, in many cases, it is the first job for many of them, and it is the first time they face a long-term commitment. They must remain within a system of rules with rights and duties. We use a whole series of rewards and, if necessary, warnings that are not always used within a prison environment. Inside the laundry the principle is that everyone knows to do everything, then there are some specialized in washing, in working with the flatwork ironer or folding, etc. All linen is being traced using a device that reads the barcodes that we place on the garments and that allows us to monitor automatically the incoming and outgoing items.

Additionally, we have also equipped the penitentiary institutions with photovoltaic panels in order to achieve significant energy cost savings.” Project, number of employees, training, curiosities, critical issues but also strong points, we discuss about it with Francesco Tedde, the laundry manager. “In the juvenile detention centre, we have three employees, while in the prison for adults, there are four. The context is objectively complicated, and not just for the inmates. Just think that inside the laundry, we cannot interact with phones, and there is no internet connection; all this makes the workflow less smooth. When we find inmates suitable for work, in many cases they become devoted because, for them, work coincides with experiencing a distraction, a moment of freedom”.

Which are the necessary requirements?

“Willingness to work and precision. As far as the Oristano firefighters department is concerned, they require that every uniform should be labelled with the name and other important information. We are talking about PPE that needs to be handled very carefully. In some cases, we are facing the problem of illiteracy and that is making everything more complicated because counting the garments or filling out delivery notes becomes a real problem. We try to make them as autonomous as possible in their work. The use of computers and software required for PPE labelling is absolutely essential.”

Which path should they follow for being able to work?

“After the interviews, we proceed with a classification list. Those who are selected start a five-month internship alongside the most experienced operator, and if their sentence matches the parameters provided by Article 21, they can continue the internship for another five months outside the facility. However, in case of incompatibility, they are hired and continue the experience internally. Interns receive 300 euros per month for a total of 15 hours per week. We consider that, for them, this job is like a breath of fresh air. We operate in a complicated work environment, and it’s not just difficult for the inmates; it is the environment itself that makes everything more difficult.”

Are there any interesting facts, special cases, that you have experienced in your role that you could share it with us?

“There have been some attempts of smuggling “things” into the prison facility through the laundry that are not compatible with the prison regulations. The perpetrator has been identified – thanks to a work colleague, who also has a very severe sentence – and he has been appropriately sanctioned by the administration and also dismissed. There have been also attempts to develop an own business, when one of the prisoners tried to make business by washing the clothes of other fellow inmates. In the past, there was even an escape using a ladder of our own property, fortunately duly authorized, which was used for dismantling and reassembling the curtains to be washed. This is the prison, and this is the reality we are dealing with, daily.”

As laundry manager in a structure for minors and adults, which do you consider to be the most striking difference between them?

With minors, it’s much more difficult because they haven’t realized yet that work is an opportunity. While adults are more aware, they need money to send home and they are thinking about the importance of learning a job for being able to support themselves financially when they will finally regain their desired freedom. In conclusion, as an old saying reminds us: “dirty linen shouldn’t be washed in public, but in the family”. But we are different: we wash them directly in prison,” concludes Francesco Tedde. •

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