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In what seems more fitting for the plot of a sentimental Christmas movie than real life, a group of prison inmates in Italy are currently busy baking Christmas cakes for customers across the country.
In an interesting video interview, Euronews met with Nicola Boscolett who founded the unique baking project inside the Due Palazzi prison in Padua.
Each Christmas, around 150 inmates help to produce around 70,000 panettones - a classic Italian Christmas snack - for 200 shops dotted across the country.
Boscolett says the scheme has proven a success for the inmates’ rehabilitation, telling Euronews: “They start to change, they become the type of good worker that it is hard to find even outside, because they regain their dignity, self-esteem. They are able to send home money to their families.”
It’s not the first time that a food project has been used as part of a rehabilitation program inside a prison. Back in 2011 the BBC made a documentary about The Clink Restaurant - a public restaurant inside a prison in Surrey. Since then the Clink project has rolled out to three other prisons in the UK and has proven a success in reducing reoffending rates in those inmates who gain work inside the restaurant. Boscolett says reoffending rates at Due Palazzi prison have dropped by nearly 2% since starting the program.
