"The tombs of the living"

This book surveys prison reform in liberal Italy. Relying on archival and published material, it shows that even as Italian criminologists gained international prominence during the liberal era, the Italian government failed to create an effective national prison system. For economic and social reasons, legislation for prison reform remained, in contemporaries' words, a -dead letter-. Even as late as 1904, the socialist Filippo Turati could justifiably describe Italy's prisons as -tombs of the living-."