The Conferenza nazionale universitaria dei Poli penitenziari (Cnupp - National University Conference of Penitentiary Centres) established by the Crui reaches 3 years of activity. Sapienza University and Cnupp collaborate to guarantee the right to university studies for people deprived of their freedom. The seminar "The right to university studies in prison: three years of experience of CNUPP and prospects" held on Friday, May 7, drew the first report of this work.

The national project began more than 20 years ago in Turin and has been replicated, albeit with local differences, in many other universities. It currently involves almost 40 universities operating in more than 80 prison establishments.

In the current academic year, there are 1,034 detained students enrolled, of whom 109 (10.5%) are in external penal enforcement, 549 (53.1%) are serving a sentence in medium-security prisons, 355 (34.3%) in high security and 21 (2.1%) in 41bis (hard prison regime). There are 64 female students, i.e. 6.2% of the total number of students. Sapienza and Cnupp collaborate at the prisons of Rebibbia Nuovo Complesso and Rebibbia Terza Casa in Rome.

Cnupp also enables the universities' contact persons to continuously discuss various issues, exchange best practices, and deal with complex problems such as, for instance, the inconveniences caused by the transfer of university student inmates.

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