crimes is the improvement of education, much too vast an objective and one which goes beyond the limits I have set for myself. But I dare to say that this objective is intrinsically linked with the nature of government which should not end up by being something cultivated only here and there and only by a few wise people, or else it becomes sterile, right up to the most remote centuries, as far as the attainment of public happiness .53

This work was followed by several broad-ranging publications spurred on by Degerando, Petitti of Roreto, and Charles Cattaneo. (1801-1869). The preventive theme is intertwined with other themes widely dealt with in publications which had to do with prisons and correction houses: punishments, forced labor, a more or less strict isolation.

People finally came to understand the following: that the application of legal punishments is not simply a defensive and vindictive weapon used by society; that its objective is not only that of preventing the delinquent from causing more harm and deterring others from imitating him; but that it should aim at bringing about the correction of the guilty party…54

Work should certainly play an essential role, but especially because work is a natural means by which a human being can improve…55 Isolation is only a safeguard for a prisoner… because the first condition attached to punishment is that a person be ‘exiled’… Never allow him to be approached by anyone who might deter him from being sorry for what he did or stir up in others the vices he is affected by, or let others be corrupted. Here, however, in our opinion, lies the limit of punishment: there is a type of communication which cannot be denied, not even to the most wicked individual: communicating with good people. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain … and it will not be enough to grant this type of communication-right only to a minister of religion, a prison inspector... Why should his friends and relatives, endowed with an honorable character and who may share the same views, not be admitted nor allowed to actively make sure that their views are followed, adding the influence of their personal affection to the power of exhortation?”56

Petitti of Roreto pays particular attention to those condemned to 'life imprisonment', to 'work-houses', where young people or even adults are locked up: these are the ones who had lived a shameful life and are hopefully preventively prepared to shun the danger of causing harm.57 They are classified according to the level of crime that they have committed. However, the author has as his starting point his fundamental trust in human potential and therefore he favours the use of both protective and positive 'preventive measures' in reference to individuals “for whom there is a greater reason to believe that the instinct of doing good is not entirely extinct.”

“If, for some reason coercive measures at times seem to be more rigorous, substantially the ruling authority in those institutions should be more fatherly and therefore more inclined to combine the gentleness of good advice to the rigour of command.” 58

A similar direction was taken by Charles Cattaneo who stressed the need to scientifically study “the criminal bent” evidenced at times by delinquents, as well as neutralising forces and chances of recovery.

53 C. Beccaria, paras 45, 126-127.

54 J.-M. De Gerando, Della pubblica beneficenza, . 5, 202 55 Ibid, . 5, 208

56 ibid, .5, 215-218

57 C.I. Petitti di Roreto, Saggio, .2, 482.

58 C.I. Petitti di Roreto, Saggio . 2, 483-484.