They too deal, steal and shoot, albeit with no financial necessity. The money they earn buys them the luxury items they need to maintain their image.
Most have never been to school and cannot read or write, let alone speak Italian. They speak in dialect and in onomatopoeic sounds. They wear clothes by Marcel Burlon – the reference – and live the life of footballers, spending hundreds of euros in VIP areas of bars each night. Their Burlon t-shirts cost €500 a piece. The details were revealed in an investigation by Corriere della Sera at the 'Jonathan' reform centre outside of Naples.
They know everything about weapons, mafia hierarchies and crime but most don’t know how to stamp a metro ticket, according to the authors of the report. “Outside of the district they don’t know how to move,” says Silvia Ricciardi, a counsellor with the Jonathan reform school for the sons of leaders of crime organisations, known locally as the Camorra.
Race against time
“We are teaching one boy how to read the dials on a clock. If you ask some of the others what month it is, they won’t be able to tell you.” Ricciardi runs the reform centre on the edges of Naples, which takes in teenagers with a background of organised crime; rape, drug dealing, assault.
Most young men arrive with a long criminal record already at 14 or 15. They are not allowed money or precious items inside but when they do get their phone allowances, they spend time texting and imitating their favourite characters from gangster films such as Scarface or Blow.
Despite such general braggadocio however, most of the teenagers carry their own traumas. “I often hear them scream in their sleep, as if they were being followed by someone. They scream: ‘Grab the gun, grab the gun.’ They relive in their subconsciousness their fears from the streets,” says Luigi Linguetta, who works at Jonathan and is charged with monitoring the boys in their sleep.
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There are currently four boys at the centre, the maximum is eight. Most look up to those who were killed in the streets, such as 19-year-old Emanuele Sibillo, who was shot 13 times and killed.
Dangerous liaisons
Others try to replicate gang hierarchies, forcing younger members of the clan to make their beds or carry out chores for them. The staff at Jonathan too run their own dangers. One boy sent his men to burn down Jonathan’s car after he was turned away. He had refused to take off his hat when checking in.
Appearances can also be deceptive, say Jonathan’s staff. One son of a famous ‘Ndrangheta family from Reggio Calabria was admitted into the centre last year, codename Tiziano.
The 15-year-old was this, cleanly presented and spoke perfect Italian according to Jonathan’s staff. It was only after they took him back to Reggio Calabria did they realise how indoctrinated young Tiziano already was.
Crowds lined the streets to meet them as they arrived. “People here like me because I put myself at their disposal,” was how Tiziano explained the adoring crowds. Amidst the multitudes was a boy to whom Tiziano had delivered justice. The boy had been shot at and insulted. Tiziano made sure the perpetrator could no longer have children.
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To read the full article in Italian, see here.