Don Squirrel... The Calabrians and Sicilians are very similar in how they regard their families and loyalties. I did understand the story was of a Calabrian boy.
There is no such a thing as rehabilitation because it is a way of life. You can't rehabilitate someone that hasn't done anything wrong in their mind. You will NEVER change the mind or thinking of any member of those families. There is no mother I know that would give consent to let her boy be taken, not when those same mothers are the ones grooming their boys to avenge their families. How can the state possibly promise to nurture these boys and give them work when they come out? What jobs? You mean give them a fishing boat, give them a shove out to sea, and say "here go make a living".
I think it's an enforced order of state custody rather than a voluntary issue, I do get what you're saying though, my girlfriend's family are Calabrese ('though she was born and raised over here) and she completely rubbished the possibility of it working on any level.
I think that to have any viability would require a level of secure and sustained investment that the state infrastructure in Calabria has so far proven incapable of delivering (the amount of EU cash that is poured into that region only for it to disappear without trace is appalling) that is to say nothing of the wider Italian economic situation.
However I think that an acknowledgement of the need for any strategy that will achieve even a modicum of lasting success must impact at a cultural level i.e. that something has to be done to encourage - if not look to outright force - a shift in attitude and mentality is a step in the right direction.
