Rome's green-fingered inmates plant seeds for future

It's 7:30 am at Rome's Rebibbia prison as inmates pile into a minibus headed for a day of freedom -- and a taste of life after incarceration.

Some of the many green spaces in the Italian capital are now in the hands of prisoners under a new scheme that drafts them in to maintain or spruce up gardens and parks.

The initiative, a joint project of the city and justice ministry, aims to smooth prisoners' reintegration into society once they have served their terms.

"Who knows, maybe one day one of us will do this as a job, to stay on the outside rather than ending up back in prison," says Umberto, one of the younger members of the group.

"At first, people were keen because it was an outing, but now it's good because we come home feeling exhausted but invigorated," adds the 30-something inmate as he prunes a hedge at the Elsa Morante cultural centre in the south of the city.

Supervising the prisoner-gardeners, Claudio Iacobelli jokes: "If they escape, I won't chase them." But, he says: "Not only does this project make them feel useful, but for them, every minute spent outside is one minute less spent in prison."
"We work together, we get organised, we talk... on our way back in the minibus in the evening we look at each other and we are satisfied," Umberto says. "We recognise that we have done a good day's work, and the next day we pick up where we left off."