Tutor: Prof.ssa Maria Francesca Cortesi

Keywords: criminal procedural law; judicial procedures in the field of criminal execution; digitalization and judicial system

Short bio:

She obtained a master's degree in Law from the University of Cagliari in criminal procedural law with a thesis entitled "Investigative demands, right of defense, right of reporting and protection of privacy". She subsequently obtained a diploma from the School of Specialization for the legal professions. She is currently a PhD student in Legal Sciences at the University of Cagliari with a research project entitled "The digitalization of criminal execution". Her research project aims to contribute to the creation, in the field of judicial procedures in the field of criminal execution, of a "computerized file of the subject subjected to execution".

Thesis abstract:

The execution of the sentence takes place along a path composed of multiple segments such that a real "history of the sentence and its execution" is created. The bodies called to decide the various aspects of the penal execution, in the Italian legal system, are multiple: the Supervisory Magistrate, the Execution Judge, the Public Prosecutor. The division of competences between these different judicial bodies determines the need for efficient management of the history of the convicted subject. In order to satisfy this need, the project aims to contribute to the study and creation, within the judicial procedures in the field of penal execution, of a "computerized file of the subject subjected to execution".
The creation of the electronic file, with a view to the computerization of the surveillance procedure and, therefore, the computerized generation of the documents that would flow into this file, would allow full and immediate knowledge, for all the offices involved in the execution phase of the sentence, of all the events that concern the execution, as well as learning the current status of the enforcement order. This would lead to an overall simplification of the exchange of information between the judicial offices, between the latter and the offices of the Department for Penitentiary Administration, as well as the various operators, in addition to constituting, inevitably, a support to the judge's activity in the phases of the investigation and issuance of provisions of various nature.
The project – in line with the objectives of digital innovation and implementation – promotes the accessibility, availability and interoperability of information in order to speed up decision-making processes in the interest of the convicted person and his defense, as well as contributing to rationalizing the allocation of resources and the quality of the response of the public administration.
The creation of the electronic file, preliminarily, requires an analysis of the essential and any data that must be inserted in it, the subjects responsible for keeping it, the subjects authorized
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to access it and the access methods, as well as the identification of the legislation for the protection of personal data.
The research project, therefore, cannot ignore an initial reconnaissance phase, that is, a phase aimed at carrying out a reasoned survey of the operating status of the Office of the Surveillance Court. This phase includes, first of all, the reconstruction of the regulatory framework of reference in terms of digitalization of criminal proceedings in general and of surveillance proceedings, in particular, with an analysis of the innovative scope, in terms of telematic criminal proceedings, of the Cartabia reform.
The reconstructing of the current workflow of the Cagliari surveillance magistracy and the observation and analysis of the organizational processes in place within the Surveillance Court and the Cagliari Surveillance Office also pertains to the reconnaissance part. The aforementioned observation, reconstruction and analysis activities will be carried out as part of the support to the magistracy and administrative staff, with participation in the registry activities, in which operational practices related to the handling of files, technological conditions, methods of acquisition and insertion into the files of documents transmitted by lawyers, public prosecutors, judicial police, UEPE and penitentiary institutions, methods of coordination with other sectors involved in the procedural process (UEPE and penitentiary institutions, first and foremost) and relationships with users (lawyers and citizens) will be detected.
The applicative part of the project will consist, instead, in the proposal of forms of adaptation of the organization of the Court and the Surveillance Office in view of the imminent development of the telematic process; in the collaboration with the registry staff in the study of the conditions for the consolidation of the good practices already in place relating to the digitalization and insertion of data; in the cataloguing and digitalization of the relevant information for the purpose of creating a single file of the subject subjected to execution; in the development of provision schemes and minutes of investigative acts to be inserted in the application program; in the contribution to the creation of a database of the decisions on the merits of the Cagliari surveillance magistracy, achieved by developing methods of cataloguing the most relevant decisions and maximizing them.