The Broad Scope of Justice Reform and Public Accountability: Insights from Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri

"If we conduct psycho-attitudinal tests for magistrates, let's do them for all other public officials, for anyone who has an important role, including those who govern. And at this point, since we're at it, let's also conduct tests for cocaine positivity because someone under the influence of narcotics can do wrong things or can be blackmailed. Let's also do drug tests, following the same procedures imagined for the tests on magistrates," is the provocation from the prosecutor of Naples, Nicola Gratteri, guest on the radio broadcast Ping Pong on Radio 1. The magistrate made no comment on the investigation by the Perugia prosecutor's office on the dossiers: "There are ongoing investigations." On the subject of wiretapping, Gratteri defended its procedural importance: "On wiretapping, the minister has said many things from October to today. The minister says they cost too much, 170 million euros a year, but in just one anti-money laundering operation, we seized assets worth 2 billion and 600 million, in addition to a bank. If this is the expense, the State profits from it." "Young people first used Facebook, now they use Tik Tok to communicate in a mafioso way also through neomelodic songs or rap, and to send messages to other conflicting organizations," the alarm raised by the prosecutor of Naples in response to a question about the controversy sparked by Daniela Di Maggio, the mother of Giogiò, the musician killed by mistake in Naples, about the award given by the City to singer Geolier and not to her son: "I cannot give a judgment, I am one of the few who did not watch Sanremo so I cannot give an evaluation. As for the story of Giogiò, the prosecution is very busy with the death of this boy just because he stepped on a shoe. The mother has every right in the world to be angry, to protest, and no one thinks she can be criticized." Regarding his first months at the helm of the Naples prosecutor's office, Gratteri said: "In Naples, it's going very well, better than expected. I'm doing many beautiful things, but above all, I have created a climate and a synergy between the judicial police and magistrates. A prosecutor's office that can still grow, has great potential, it will take some time to get into full swing." And to the proposal recently relaunched by the leader of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, to legalize cannabis, he responds: "On the legalization of soft drugs - Gratteri said speaking on 'Ping Pong' radio - I am absolutely against it. It is not true as those who want to legalize it say that selling drugs in pharmacies would be a deterrent because kids would still go to dealers, also to benefit from lower prices. A gram of cocaine costs on average 60 euros, a gram of marijuana about 5 euros. What would this great impoverishment of the mafias be compared to the business? Unless, as Hon. Giachetti says, we legalize cocaine. There remains the problem of where we would go to buy this cocaine since there is no part of the world, even among the producing countries like Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, where cocaine is sold legally." "I think that Giorgia Meloni is poorly advised on justice. I met Carlo Nordio when he came to Catanzaro to inaugurate the new prosecutor's office, an extremely brilliant, friendly, and cultured person, an art expert, but on the front of justice reforms, there isn't a measure that I appreciated," Gratteri then explained. The overcrowding of prisons and the reform of the Guardasigilli on pre-trial detention among the topics discussed: "Given that it is a problem common to all European states - the magistrate said - in Italy it has often been solved with the shortcut of pardons and amnesties. I think that so far the problem has not been addressed systematically. I think, for example, that prisons built in reinforced concrete could be expanded by lengthening them with sections and if not done now with the funds from the Pnrr I don't know when. I also believe that prisons are full of drug addicts and that these boys should be taken to therapeutic centers. In addition, there are hundreds of mentally ill people in prisons, I think that these people should be taken out and doctors and nurses hired to be able to treat them. In this way, the problem of prisons is solved." As for the project of the Guardasigilli, Carlo Nordio, to have pre-trial detention signed by a panel composed of three judges, Gratteri rejects the idea as unrealistic. "It's simply utopian," he explains, "especially in smaller courts where there are six or seven magistrates. If three sign and another has to act as Gup and if among the judges there is a pregnant woman, what do you do? You have to take one from another nearby court. At this moment, it is simply unfeasible." For the magistrate at the head of the Naples prosecutor's office, the State should do more also on the front of new technologies: "The State has not thought to invest in technologies in past years and has not thought to hire even good hackers or computer engineers. On technology, other police forces, Germans, French, and Dutch, are ahead having access to platforms that we do not intercept."