A great part of the reverse push will still be delegated to criminal law, the prison ward and, perhaps, also to the executioner. But a major part will be delegated to indirect cures and other branches of civil authority, especially in what regards behavior and education. Lastly, another part will be entirely delegated to the physician. Perhaps a preventive imprisonment, without any punishment, may appear to be the only way to protect society from certain crimes which may be considered more like acts coming from a natural dishonorable condition than acts of calculated wickedness.59

4. Education as prevention

Historically, the idea of education as prevention stands out as clearly connected with preventive education, without considering how it is achieved, whether by repressive or preventive methods. The authors who insisted on this view were already mentioned earlier: Morichini, Aporti, Degerando and Petitti of Roreto.

As Romagnosi perceptively remarks it is up to civil authority, namely it is the absolute right

of those who govern to demand that all individuals be given an elementary education, for

this is the best means to guarantee a peaceful state to society. It would be foolish to say that

civil authority may use punishments, even severe and terrible punishments for crimes

committed while it is unable to prevent them. Now there is no wise man who would deny

that public instruction is one of the most powerful means of prevention”.60

Even Charles Cattaneo referred to John Dominic Romagnosi at the conclusion of his essay on the ineffectiveness, or rather the damage produced by penal deportation. “The study of the penal system shows ever more clearly how deep and wise was the statement made by Romagnosi that ‘a good government is a great safeguard, when accompanied by a great educational program’”.61

Ferrante Aporti considered his kindergarten to be a preventive institution aiming at eliminating the deformation encountered by children who grow up in families unable to provide the right education or which cannot do it all .62 In a word, these families are unable to effectively defend the innocent childhood of the poor from vices and errors.63

With the kindergarten, Aporti had intended to commence the creation of a vast network of new institutions destined to prevent immorality from childhood on; “for once this period is contaminated by immorality, there can hardly be any healing for it”.64 In the preface to the Manuale di educazione ed ammaestramento (Manual of education and instruction), written in 1833,65 Aporti speaks about the child’s extraordinary receptiveness and about the need to respond to this with preventive, educative care. Kindergartens were the offshoot of a “charity directed to prevent rather than allowing evils to be suffered, then provided medical care”.66 While he was expressing his gratitude to the Commission for Kindergartens in the city of Venice, Aporti stated:

59 C. Cattaneo, Scritti politici ed epistolario, published by G.Rosaand J.White Mario. (Florence: Barbera 1892), 88-89: a

fragment on Atavismo delittuoso.

60 C.L. Morichini, Degli istituti di pubblica carità, 33.

61 C.Cattaneo, Della riforma penale, 2. “Della deportazione”, in Opere di Giandomenico Romagnosi, Carlo Cattaneo,

Giuseppe Ferrari, ed. Ernesto Sestan, (Milan-Naples: R. Ricciardi 1957), 505 (note, the exact expression used by

Romagnosi in two different works).

62 Cf. the rich historical essay with copious bibliographical references, by L. Pazzaglia, “Asili, Chiesa e mondo cattolico

nell’Italia dell’800”, in Pedagogia e vita, 56, 1998: 4,. 63-78.

63 Letter to C. Bon Compagni, 30th June 1838, in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili nel Risorgimento, . 2.

Documenti Memorie Carteggi, (Turin, 1937),. 397.

64 Letter to G. Petrucci, 6th August 1842, in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, . 2, 470-471.

65 F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, collected and illustrated by A. Gambari . I. (Turin: Chinatore 1944), 8-14.

66 F. Aporti, Elementi di pedagogia, in Scritti pedagogici, collected and illustrated by A. Gambaro, 2. (Turin:, Chinatore

1945), 114.