La spettacolare scalinata cinquecentesca del Palazzo del Comune di Città di Castello detto anche dei Priori.

Prison, Writing, and the Possibility of Rebirth. Castello Literary Prize.

by Osvaldo Bevilacqua 22 February 2026

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By Sandra Jacopucci

The Special Section of the Castello Literary Prize – Destination Elsewhere, titled “Writing as an Exploration of Timeless Worlds”, a name coined by the Cultural Association “Tracciati Virtuali” and strongly supported by Antonio Vella, President of the publishing house Luoghi Interiori, is dedicated to people detained in Italian prisons.

In the 2025 edition, whose award ceremony was held on Saturday, February 21, 2026, in the Council Chamber of the Municipality of Città di Castello (PG), 81 inmates took part by submitting their works, coming from 38 penitentiary institutions. These figures reflect the national scope of the initiative and its symbolic and social value.

Writing emerges as a channel of salvation, a possibility to “go elsewhere” when, for psychological, physical, economic, or social reasons, one has lost one’s way. The works describe worlds suspended in time: places of detention, often defined as “non-places,” where the perception of time passing is altered, rarefied, frozen in an existential suspension.

The winner was Christof Petr, connected online from the Parma prison facility, with the short story titled “The Mistake, the Discovery, the Cure.” A story about the invention of penicillin as a metaphor for the value of error and scientific responsibility, which Antonio Vella described as “one of the submissions received over the years with the highest narrative style.”

Second place went to Katarzyna Monika Strzalka, from the women’s prison of Giudecca in Venice, with the work “Steps.”

Third place, ex aequo, was awarded to an anonymous author with the work “My World Elsewhere,” from the Enna prison facility, and to “Equality” by Natascia Cordaro from the Latina prison.

View of Piazza Gabriotti. On the left the Civic Tower, on the right the Town Hall

The Mayor, Luca Secondi, renewed his administration’s commitment to further enhance the already prestigious prize, stating that “with the award ceremony of the Castello Literary Prize section, we have written in our city a page of history marked by civility and human dignity, which through writing and reading takes shape even in particular contexts and environments of the national community.”

“The initiative of the prize is rooted in the principles established by Article 27, paragraph 3 of the Italian Constitution, which assigns to punishment a rehabilitative and social reintegration purpose in the interest of collective security. Participation in civil life through culture thus becomes a bridge between inside and outside, between detention and citizenship.Among the declared objectives are: the definitive interruption of criminal activities, the reduction of recidivism, access to employment, and the personal and conscious choice not to commit crimes again. Prison, however, is often a multiplier of criminal dynamics: inside it everything has a higher price, and organized crime attempts to insert itself as a functional element of prison life quality, in a paradox that contradicts the rehabilitative purpose of punishment.”

The Director General of Penitentiary Institutions, Ernesto Napolillo, stated that “penitentiary treatment and security must be understood as integrated objectives within a context of legality. Yet the social stigma of the detainee weighs heavily: the criminal record as an indelible mark, a historicization of error that risks neutralizing any possibility of reintegration. Overcoming this mark is a necessary condition for real inclusion.”
The former Prosecutor General of Umbria, Fausto Cardella, highlighted “the dramatic prison overcrowding, which generates conditions that are often inhumane and lacking privacy. New facilities are needed: a medium-sized prison (like those in Spoleto or Perugia, with 300–400 inmates) requires years of planning and construction, while the national excess exceeds 15,000 people.”

Antonio Vella, Fausto Cardella. On the screen above, Silvia Bongiorno, President of the Senate Justice Commission

The Senator Walter Verini, Secretary of the Senate Justice Commission, drew attention to “the last among the earth: migrants from underdeveloped countries, survivors of crossings that cost lives and dignity. Many would need care more than detention, often sedated with psychotropic drugs. Punishment must not be revenge, but rehabilitation: earning a diploma, receiving professional training, investing in humanity means improving everyone’s safety. New prisons are necessary, but change must begin immediately, at a cultural and mental level. Job training, suicide prevention, and respect for guaranteed minimum living space are no longer deferrable urgencies. In this context, the literary prize becomes a concrete hope: an opportunity to imagine a second life.”

Anna Rossomando, Walter Verini, Ernesto Napolillo

The Vice President of the Senate, Anna Rossomando, recalled that “literature is a beautiful place to dwell in, and detained persons are holders of rights and duties. Prejudices are insurmountable walls that render any rehabilitative path ineffective. Punishment should be graduated along a recovery path, with alternatives to detention such as house arrest or community facilities. Work requires investments and spaces, but educators and social workers are lacking; even prison police often operate in inadequate conditions. Reading and writing thus become a destination for those who have not entirely lost themselves.”

According to Alessandro Masi, President of the Jury of the Castello Prize and Secretary General of the Dante Alighieri Society, “A literary prize, of course, cannot solve the structural problems of justice, but it can change a perspective: culture offers a different vision of life. The writings of detainees are relief, a response to a troubled human condition, a contemporary echo of Dante who in the Inferno described punishment as destiny and human judgment. A cultural legacy that also recalls the figure of Alessandro Quasimodo, President of the Jury for seventeen consecutive editions, son of Nobel laureate Salvatore Quasimodo.”

In his closing remarks, Osvaldo Bevilacqua, as a member of the Jury, underlined how the Literary Prize can be considered an important reference point, a laboratory of ideas and initiatives for new generations. Addressing the many high school students present in the hall, he recommended that they engage with these sensitive issues, not allow their future to be “stolen,” and to “protest if necessary, making their voices heard, but never resorting to violence.”

Finally, the testimony of Nicholas Lupo, winner of the 2024 edition, was quoted, encapsulated in a simple sentence that embodies the idea that writing can be an act of restitution, dignity, and reconnection with the world:

“Finally, I can call my mother and tell her that I have done something good.”