Fines and ammendas (the conversion in limited release or in a useful social job)

The monetary punishments can be called: "multa/fines" or "ammenda". They are established, at the end of a trial and they can accompany the sentence to the detention, or constitute a sole inflicted sanction. Many crimes foresee both the prison and monetary sentence. For example, for the crimes of drug and smuggling, heavy fines are foreseen.

But these punishments can be inflicted even if you make a petition in Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) and this is recognized as unfounded (declared inadmissible).

When one does not have the economic conditions to pay, fines and ammendas are converted to another substitutive punishment by the office, that consists of conditional release (libertà controllata).

Each quote of 38,73 Euro, of an unpaid monetary punishment can be substituted with one day of conditional release, or a useful social job, which cannot last for more than the following periods of time:

Conditional release will have to be served at the end of the detention and involves some obligations and prohibitions, that are decided by the Supervisory Magistrate: to present yourself daily in barracks, not to go out of the commune of residence, etc. (A possibility exists and automatically stops at any moment the substitutive punishment by paying the due fine or ammendas).

If you don’t respect every limitation of the conditional release or of the useful social job, pointed out by the Magistrate, you shall serve in prison the remaining day of the sentence.

The substitution of the monetary punishment with the conditional release or useful social job obliges foreigners, even if convicted to the expulsion in sentence, to stay in Italy up to the term of the substitutive punishment.

If you intend to pay, rather than to serve the substitutive punishment, but at that moment haven’t a sufficient amount of money to do so, you can request to pay by instalments how much due by requesting a special application to the Supervisory Magistrate. Each instalment won’t be, however, inferior to 15,49 Euro and the instalments can be, thirty at the very most. You can also ask to postpone the payment for six months, subsequently extendable, if you foresee, at that time, to have the necessary amount of money due to be paid..

If you are definitive, the payment of the expenses of the trial and the money that are owed to the public defender (if you had not been admitted to the legal aid).

A daily payment "giornaliera" will also be asked you for your maintenance in jail, currently fixed at around 1,80 Euro daily. This sum includes the cost of the meals and that for the use of the personal equipment, furnished by the Penitentiary Administration (mattress, sheets, plates and cutlery etc.).

For the coverage of these two expenses you will answer to this with all the movable tangible assets and immovable assets in your possession (apart from part of the salary of your job, even when carried out in jail, and of the pension, that cannot be distraint).

If you are found in economic difficulty, you can request that the legal and maintenance costs be remitted. (Other than being in economic difficulty, it is necessary for you to have carried out good behaviour during detention).

If the application will be accepted, you won’t be held to pay these expenses. In such case, the expenses of maintenance will be debited only for those working months during detention.

To request the release of debt you must send a special application to the Supervisory Magistrate.

The question of release of debt must be introduced as soon as you receive the notice of payment and it involves the provisional suspension of the procedure for the recovery of the due sums.

When you finish the sentence, the Supervisory Magistrate will decide whether or not you are under the conditions for receiving the real remission of the debt.

If you are "definitive - convicted" (definitivo) wages (mercede) for the job carried out in jail is divided among the available fund (four fifths) and the bound fund (a fifth).

The money of the bound fund will be given to you when you finish your sentence however, if you really cannot do without it, you can request, through the special form that you will find in the section, the release (lo svincolo), specifying the motives for this application, but it’s approved only in front of specific reasons, and when the available fund is not enough.

When the crime for which you have been convicted has caused damages to other people and these are constituted at the trial as the plaintiff, you must indemnify them. The sum for the reimbursement, established by the judge, can be covered through the sale of the goods in your possession, or through deductions from your salary, which can be up to a maximum of the two fifths (including maintenance expenses). As for the monetary punishments, the amounts that are due for the compensation for damage, cannot be remitted.

If you seek a job you have to enrol yourself in the lists of the unemployed, and the application must be made to the Local Employment Office ("Sezione Circoscrizionale per l’Impiego") of the Province where you are imprisoned. The question of registration can be sent by mail, attaching:

This book will be returned to you. Within the 30^th of November of each year you must remember to request the renewal of the registration, otherwise you will be cancelled from the unemployment lists; you can also request for the exemption from the annual renewal by signalling the persisting state of detention.

At the end of sentence it is possible to recover the seniority of the matured unemployment, by going to the Employment office with certificate for the period of detention, issued by the direction of the prison. Those in possession of a qualification (acquired through a course), can require that it be recorded in the book of employment by attaching a copy of the certificates issued by the acknowledged professional formation entities.

The book of employment must be requested at the commune of residence, also by mail and, in case of loss, a duplicate of it can be requested by attaching the report of its loss.

Means a temporary contribution, corresponding to 30 % of the monthly salary, that is liquidated by the I.N.P.S., and there are two existing types: ordinary and reduced.

The ordinary type is for those who have worked for at least 52 weeks in the last two years and has been enrolled for at least two years with the Social security. The terms of presentation for the request expires on the 68^th day after your dismissal, or on the 98^th day from when you resigned.

Reduced indemnity is foreseen for all those seasonal and precarious workers, which concerns a majority of prisoners: it is necessary to have worked at least 78 real days in the solar year, always having at least two years of registration with the I.N.P.S.

This request must be carried out within the 31^st of March of the immediate following year of the job, and it isn’t necessary to be unemployed at the moment you request it.