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1 – The President of the Republic requested today from the Constitutional Court the preventive supervision of the constitutionality of the provisions of item b) of Para. 6 of Article No. 14 of Parliamentary Decree No.366/X, which approves the new Law for the Execution of Prison Sentences.

2 – The said provisions, allowing a prisoner to be placed under open circumstances, in external surroundings, by a simple decision of the Director General of Prisons, raised doubts to the President of the Republic as to its constitutionality, with regard to the principles of jurisdictional reserve and of the mandatory respect for a decision of a court of law from Administrative bodies.

3 – A jurisdictional decision which comprises an effective prison sentence will lose the reach intended by the court of law which set its limits, when the new bill allows the prison administrator, under the pretext of providing flexibility to the detainee’s situation, to place under open circumstances without direct supervision, prison inmates who have completed just one quarter of a sentence and have complied with a number of other formal and substantive requisites, thus creating conditions susceptible of causing risks to the victims and a justifiable fear of social alarm.