Overview

• During a Senate debate on the security decree, Berrino said “a child is safer in prison than at home with parents who conceive them to commit crimes” and called women who bear children to evade jail “unworthy”
• Democratic Party senator Filippo Sensi condemned the remarks as “cruel,” deepening the divide between government and opposition in Palazzo Madama
• Berrino clarified that housing children in prison must be an extrema ratio and only occur after a magistrate’s judgment under the security decree
• He highlighted that the decree entrusts judges with assessing whether a child’s welfare is better served in detention than at home
• Berrino maintained the measure is vital to prevent deliberate childbirth as a means to avoid imprisonment and to uphold the value of life