[Signs of protest in preventive and penal institutions between 1 January 1972 and 8 September 1979]

This study poses to the reader's attention the phenomenon of the protest demonstrations that took place in the penal and custodial institutions in Italy from 1972 to 1979. A first processing of the data is presented, which points up the salient characteristics and tendencies of the phenomenon. Among the results obtained is the substantially peaceful nature of the protest demonstrations, this being predominant--although during the years 1973, 1974, and 1976 a number, though a moderate fraction of the total, of serious cases took place that involved violence against persons and property, which alarmed public opinion. The motives prevalently brought forth as being the causes of the demonstrations lead back to the conditions of convict life, to the convicts' hopes and expectations before and after the penal reform bill of 1975, and, often, to the points arrived at regarding their trials. Since 1978 the demonstrations have been almost entirely peaceful.