Antonino Rodà (aka Nuccino)seventy-year-old Reggino, is detained in the Opera prison in Milan where he is serving the sentence of life imprisonment for crimes committed in the Second War of the Mafia of Reggio Calabria (1985-1991).
Behind the bars, Rodà had the opportunity to reflect on the mistakes made and decided to take his time well: first in the prison of Biella and then in the one he started to study with commitment. Rodà sought reintegration into social life by making training courses of various kinds, so much so that in 2012, in the prison structure of Biella, he managed to achieve a second diploma with the highest votes at the artistic high school. Then, in 2014, he was transferred to the penitentiary structure of Opera where he continued to make training courses until he was born, thanks to the proreor and teacher Stefano Simonetta of the State University of Milan, the “University in prison” project. Antonino Rodà enrolled in the Faculty of the Environment and the Territory. He studied with passion and profitable so much that he has passed every subject with full marks. Finally he presented the degree thesis (discussed by the Commission inside the Opera prison) on the Bergamotto and on the Annona two fruits of Reggio Calabria … he was the first student/detained to bring to the final exam a study on these two products (especially the Annona was somewhat unknown to Milan). The exam was a success with the vote of 107 and many compliments from the professors, who invited the “new” Antonino Rodà to study again to complete the cycle with the master’s degree. A beautiful story of moral redemption. For a prisoner who found in the study a light of hope in the darkness of a life imprisonment in which the ruthless’ ndrangheta fell.
