Article from The Guardian here. I'm always amazed at how corrupt Italy is and how bad unemployment is over there. The Italian Mafia in the US may die out in another generation or two, but I bet it will survive in Italy for decades to come.

The mob in NY will survive in decades to come also. They've got too many idiots who wanna be mobsters.

In South Italy the mafia is cultural thing,the mentality of people is so much different.You have people during the Easter,Christmas going in front of important mafia figures houses to show respect.

Strax in 1981 Giuseppe Salvia the vice director of poggioreale prison tried to cut off all the privilegies that Cutolo had in the prison; cutolo slapped Salvia that later was killed on cutolo order.
There no mentality question, also in the north italy the people show respects to the feared criminals even id are lone wolves and not oc criminals.
The corrucption in the italian prisons work because more guards are low paied and take the bribes for smuggles best food and others or even messages for let the boss continued to run the bussiness.
Not are corrupt but in some cases if you say no to the wrong guy you or your family can be beaten or killed. That is.