Identità in cambiamento: il ruolo del funzionario della professionalità giuridico pedagogica in carcere

The Italian prison organization has been undergoing several modifications aiming at increasing\r\nthe inmates’ as well as the professionals’ well-being.\r\nIn particular, the Penitentiary Administration Department’s decision of replacing former penitentiary\r\neducators with juridical-educational professionals (circular letter 0438879-2010) repre-\r\nMonica Accordini, Emanuela Saita, Martina Tramontano\r\n255\r\nwww.narrareigruppi.it – Etnografia dell’interazione quotidiana. Prospettive cliniche e sociali, vol. 10, n° 3, dicembre 2015\r\nsented an extremely relevant change. Such modifications also led professionals working in\r\nprison to restructure their concept of professional identity.\r\nThe present study makes use of focus groups interviews and the Symbolic Drawing of the\r\nOrganizational Life Space (SDOLS) in order to investigate the professional identity\r\nrepresentations as well as the concept of change in a group of 10 juridical-educational\r\nprofessionals working in two correctional facilities in Lombardy.\r\nFocus group transcripts were analyzed using the software T-LAB while a phenomenological\r\nanalysis was carried out on the SDOLSs.\r\nOur findings show that such representations are based on practices and scripts that are only\r\nshared and socialized at a local level, that is within the organization professionals work in; on\r\nthe contrary, specific values connected to their professional role appear to be less relevant.\r\nHence, a difference between the two correctional facilities considered can be observed: although\r\nthey both serve their mission, one can find a 'total institution', characterized by a lack of\r\nopenness towards the outside world on one hand, and the attempt to develop synergic relationships\r\nwith the local community on the other.