Since February 2023, the Criminal Justice Legal Clinic, starting from the experience gained working at the Bollate prison, has set up a legal counselling service in the San Vittore prison. 

Every week, the Clinic offers legal advice to foreign prisoners who ask for it. The primary aim of this initiative is to provide inmates with essential legal information to help them navigate their criminal proceedings and the execution of their sentences. It also aims to clarify the impact of criminal cases on their legal stay in Italy, addressing issues such as residence permits, expulsion orders, international protection status and related matters. 

The Legal Information Desk involves tutors (Ph.D. students and research fellows) and students of the Faculty of Law enrolled in or having completed the optional course in Criminal Justice Legal Clinic. These participants work with lawyers specialised in Migration Law. 

In addition, students from the University of Milan's bachelor's degree programme in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation participate in the initiative through a training internship, which involves students of Arabic and Spanish languages and cultures. These mediation students play a crucial role in facilitating communication with detainees, who often do not speak Italian. 

In order to be properly trained for their role, all students - from both the law and mediation programmes - complete a specialised training course. The course coaches them to interact with prisoners and to deal with relevant legal issues.  The training is given by lawyer Paolo Oddi, a lecturer at the University of Milan, and lawyer Bianca Bonelli, an expert in Criminal and Migration Law. It explores the concept of "crimmigration", the intersection of Criminal and Migration Law, and provides practical solutions to detainees' questions. 

The Legal Information Desk operates every Monday from 9:00 to 13:00 and is usually staffed by three people: a tutor, a law student and a mediation student. From its inception until the end of 2024, the Desk adviced approximately 200 prisoners. 

Since June 2024, following a request from prison staff, the Criminal Justice Legal Clinic, in collaboration with the Legal Clinic of Bocconi University, has undertaken an additional initiative aimed at foreign detainees, which consists in organising a series of workshops on the basic principles of criminal procedure and the enforcement of sentences. 

Every two months, a training course of three sessions of 2 hours each is offered to interested foreign prisoners. These sessions cover topics such as precautionary measures, trial and enforcement procedures. Prisoners are grouped by language (e.g. Arabic, Spanish, English), with interpreters providing translation, and they receive a certificate of attendance upon completion of the course. Three editions were held in 2024, with a total of approximately 50 prisoners participating. 

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