Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

Moreover, the space and facilities in CIE have been compared to jail: “There [in prison] you could
buy everything: bath soap, food. Here instead there is one guy who comes and sells us different
things, but he asks for double the price” (Interview 14). Furthermore, in prison there are usually
two or three people per cell, in comparison to six or seven people in a CIE cell. It can be easier to
get along with others in the cell when there are less people: “Where I was I had a room for two
people, we also had a little stove to be able to cook” (Interview 11); "In prison we were three
people to a cell" (Interview 19).
It is important to highlight that the Italian Penitentiary Police (Polizia Penitenziaria 54 ) is a
specific police body who are explicitly trained to work in jail. In contrast, the military staff and
the police monitoring Turin’s CIE receive comparatively little training because they were not
expressly prepared and recruited for the purposes of working in CIE 55 . This can contribute to
tensions because authorities have received relatively little training on working with culturally
and linguistically diverse communities, including asylum seekers who have often survived
torture and trauma.
54 The Polizia Penitenziaria is one of the five Italian police branches. It is a civil police branch under the
authority of the Ministry of Justice. It has special competences in the provision of services and management of
the people in jail or people who are living in conditions where their liberty has been restricted. The Polizia
Penitenziaria does not work inside Turin’s immigration detention centre.
55 For more information, see Part B. Conditions of Detention. Chapter VI. Relationships with CIE Staff.
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