The jail is usually though as the place of mere detention, where the custodial aspect and the questions of internal security are preminent in comparison with the treatment purpose.

The Law 162/90 decrees that the Public Drug Addict Service (PDAS) becomes a member of the penitentiary team, with the rules laid out by convention.

Four years ago an experimental subdued custody prison was opened in Florence (the first in Italy), reserved for young drug addict prisoners (from 18 to 25 years old).

The term "subdued custody" (SD), just created for this particular jail, means a form of attenuated, lightened, weakened custody: prisoners are relatively free to go around into the penitentiary building (they are not shut up in their cells many hours in the day) and the prison regulations are less strong than in the ordinary jail.

This situation makes the individual or the prisoners’ community treatment-task easier, as the custodial aim is supplemented with other therapeutic activities, especially toward a rehabilitation goal.

Within this context we started almost three years ago a new rehabilitation approach setting up a small group of prisoners with a psychologist and a medical doctor - belonging to the local PDAS - as leaders.

Prisoners were coming members of the group voluntarily and kept staying for a variable period before their release from prison; then new other prisoners were adding to the residual group in order to keep stable - near ten - the number of participants (half-open group).

In the management of the group our objective was to give young prisoners a time and a place for individual reflection on their own situation and prospects (what is usually reduced or diverted during detention), by stimulating the self-insight and the mutual comparison (Variable A).

We tried to change the patient/prisoner "world outlook" in order to reduce his pain for the unresolved discrepancy between the reality and the wishes (variable B), overcoming the typical prisoner's conspiracy of silence (variable C).

We compared the individual period of persistence in the group with the efficacy of the post-imprisonment rehabilitation program (variable D).

A link ring between "in/out" and "before/after" was created, giving rise to a transitional space or "symbolically free zone".

We used the imaginary, metaphorical and symbolic language instead of an analytic resolution. Examples from daily and common language - not demanding contextual explanation - were preferred to the language of psychotherapeutic practise.

We considered both our knowledge about the relational approach (pragmatics of the communication) and the psychoanalytic theories, adapted to needs surroundings.

In 31 months 39 prisoners took turns at the group activity, with the individual average weekly presence over six months.

Analysing the four variables (A-D) taken into account, in summary we have noted:

-effects of communication on the single's behaviour (variables A-B)

- a feedback effect on the whole prison community attitude (variable C)

-people that stayed longer in the group had more permanent results (no relapses) after release from prison, also because of the carrying out of more complete post- imprisonment rehabilitation program (variable D):

The management of a small drug addicts group in a prison with SC represents a new experimental rehabilitation approach for the PDAS's workers.

It needs further longitudinal evidences of effectiveness and to go deeper in considerations, but surely shows that detention can be not only an "inactive parking period" for the drug addict prisoner.

Key Words: Jail, Drug addict prisoner, Group.