Mauro D'AgatiO.P.G. Criminal Asylum

All these photographs were taken in the Italian psychiatric prisons of Napoli, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Aversa, in 2001. In the mid-1970s the O.P.G. (Ospedale Psichiatrico Giudiziario) model replaced the old criminal asylums. The Italian Law n. 81 of 2014 set 1 April 2015 as the definitive date for the closure of the 6 judicial psychiatric hospitals that existed in Italy. This is an event that marks the history of reform of the health care and custody system for people with mental illness, a struggle that has lasted for 40 years, with the Basaglia law.