International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 47

International Journal on Criminology
E - Europe
1 - Italy
Contrary to the reputation the mafia once had of abandoning its criminal
activities and avoiding attention while in prison, the Italian police have
shown that mafia bosses pursue their activities from inside, using their wives,
parents, friends and subordinates to transmit instructions through signs, gestures or
messages, 93 allowing their organization to function. This permeability is well known,
but more structured organizational forms exist in Italian prisons too.
La Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), the most dangerous camorra
federation 94 between 1970 and 1980, was created within the prison system by Raffaele
Cutolo, an individual who has spent most of his life in prison. 95 Cutolo built his
organization by helping young men, mostly inexperienced and poor, to survive in
prison. He then strengthened it by setting up a system of financial aid to prisoners
and their families, based on “taxation” of the criminal activity of released affiliates.
In parallel, Cutolo led the Nuova Camorra Organizzata down an avenue of
ultra-violence, giving it a near monopoly in a large number of prisons, which it ruled
through intimidation and murder. It was a classical system of “carrot and stick” but
also of corruption, given that Cutolo had the power to select the cells and jails his
members would be sent to, in order to better develop his power structure. He himself
enjoyed virtually free use of the prison director's office telephone. Ultimately it was the
arrogance and paranoia of Cutolo himself, particularly his irrational use of murder,
even within the ranks of his own organization, along with the onslaught of the Nuova
Famiglia 96 and the police, which led the NCO to ruin.
2 - UK
Every year thousands of detainees are beaten, bullied or intimidated by
increasingly numerous and violent gangs that develop as the prison population grows.
Gangs engage in all sorts of illegal activities—drug trafficking, gambling, assault and
murder. Some have become so powerful that they bring in revenues of hundreds of
pounds a week to their members, set aside for release or used to improve life inside
the prison. The prison administration has been overwhelmed by the arrival of the
drug and gang culture that has penetrated its institutions.
93
Called pizzinis like those found in large numbers in the cache of Bernardo Provenzano when he was
arrested in 2006.
94
Camorra: a criminal organization originally from Naples (Italy) and Campania. Raufer, X. La
Camorra, une mafia urbaine. Paris: La Table Ronde, 2005.
95
Behan, Tom. “See Naples and die.” The Camorra and organized crime. London, New York: I.B. Tauris
Books, 2002.
96
A rival federation which, at that time, united all the most important families of the Camorra.
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